The last aspect I work on to try and deal with the slow pace of play by post is adjusting the kind of adventures I run. As a general rule I run pretty open-ended, sandbox-style games, but the below applies to more linear, plot-driven games as well. The type of adventure is less important than how it is constructed.
The first thing I try and do is include smaller, self-contained dungeons. I have tried running mega-dungeons in the past, but have found that my players either eventually get bored after several months of the same thing, or get distracted and wind up doing something else, or simply forget stuff they did a few months prior in real-time. A pbp game is going to move forward much more slowly than a face to face game and mega-dungeons have the tendency to draaaaaaaaaag. When running dungeons I try to keep them to a dozen or so rooms, at maximum, and maybe have that number of encounters. I'm not always successful, of course!
I tend to include fewer traps than would ordinarily be in a face to face game, as well, so play doesn't get bogged down in paranoid searching every square inch of a dungeon. I will often make traps or hidden doors somewhat obvious, and will be honest with my players when there's nothing to find (I'll come right out and tell them there's nothing to find, since I don't want them wasting days of real time searching a room that is literally empty).
Along those lines, I don't provide false plot hooks. I'll happily feed my players false information about the game world, but I'm not going to give them false hooks or rumors that cause them to spend months of real time chasing after false leads. It's just not fun for them to invest all that time and then not result in anything.
A lot of these solutions require some suspension of disbelief, but I've found that I'd much rather deal with that and have happy, motivated players than those frustrated by a slow pace of play.
Next up, we'll start discussing the positive aspects of play by post gaming!
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