How long does this verification process last?

I've read it takes between 7 - 10 days for the verification process. I'd say about 30% of my MAIL are validated after that time. It would probably be more if not for the broken links and images. At the end of the validation time, i'll see 20 upvotes and one downvote, completely destroying the chance for validation. Frustrating, but incentive to do better.

the importance of funnel creation and list building

I'm still learning how to generate a good "funnel'. I understand the basic concept, but application is still a learning process. I learned about mass-disqualification during my time using Google adwords, where massive numbers of "views" and "clicks" were disqualified. But those clicks were still PAID FOR, regardless of their quality. Unless you know what you're doing with adwords, its a huge waste of money.

Listnerds is interesting because it reverses the trend, instead of paying for clicks, users GET PAID (so to speak) for clicking, so the click-through-rate is absurdly HUGE. Sending 5K mail and only having 70-80 people open it is a pretty low open rate (1-2%), but having 80 - 100% of mail-to-clicks is amazing! And still, that's dozens and dozens of real people visiting your link - again, it's simply amazing.

I think it's time for me to pay attention to those emails that explain the meaning of "joining a traffic,"

I haven't investigated these "joining a traffic" sites, I can't help be a little skeptical. If someone were to demonstrate how it works, why it's worth pursuing and realistically what results I could expect for the effort, then I would look more seriously. For now, I'm very pleased with ListNerds and the more I think about it, the more I'm considering another month of Enterprise.