The very few occasions you recommend the site to everyday visitors spawn interesting conversations but very little website traffic. Your site recommendations to new visitors are much more relevant to this discussion.
I'm not sure where the communication disconnect is-- I recommend Less Wrong to people who generally haven't heard of it before. They are potential new visitors.
What if the front page looked a little more like this?
(Please assume that I'm trying to help. If you're polite and constructive (even if you hate this design) Omega will send you bundles of love in the post. If you're rude, I'll personally fund ninja assassins to hunt you down.)