I think that sending out emails might annoy people and cause some to unregister. Thats just how the internet works. Especially with forums. There are more people who register and don't post than the ones that do. Sometimes people post once or twice and forget about it. There are at least 20 good sites just like this one where people can post their websites, so what makes it successful is if it has something unique that people like. Obviously that unique thing isn't easy to find, but there are tons of ideas out there. Overall these forums do really well, and I found your community/site through Google, so it isn't really a problem or anything. Maybe a new design? Maybe you guys can have a competition for the new site's design where all the members submit their concepts. Just throwing out ideas. This is a successful website, btw