In the world of internet marketing, there is always an opportunity to step back and see exactly what's happening with your business. You probably started out hoping to make a lot of money. If you don't have the right resources and techniques, this kind of success can be tough.

1.)  Traffic. The sales funnel starts the minute someone opts into your list when they land on your squeeze page. This is the place that you put your opt-in form so that visitors can give you their contact information for further follow-up.

-If you don't have this crucial point in your web pages, you have no way to build a list or build your sales funnel. Viewers of your website will just visit and then turn to someone else's page for what they are searching for.

-The idea is to keep people at your site long enough for them to leave their contact info. The result is that they agree to let you send them more information through your auto-responder.

-Whatever you decide to use as a traffic source, it's the handing over of the contact information that begins the sales funnel.

-If you're going to reach that goal, you have to get really good at driving traffic to your website. All internet marketers need to figure out this important skill from the get-go.

-Generating traffic to your capture page is vital to the success of your business.

2.)  Consistent Communication. Maintaining your prospects' level of interest and trust in your products and services is the next step for your sales funnel.

-If there's no substance to your auto-responder communication, you have a good chance of losing them as customers in the future. Your goal from the beginning is to prove to your customers you have something of value to offer them. Once your prospects grow to know and trust you, they are much more likely to return to your sites in the future.

-Regular communication with your list does two things -- first, it shows them that you have quality information for them regularly, and second, it helps to filter out those that really aren't interested.

3.)  Marketing. Only after developing these relationships can you begin to market well to your prospects.  This is where you start to promote more of what you have to offer to your prospects.

-You're still trying to build trust while giving excellent info that they are starting to excitedly anticipate.

-They are starting to wait anxiously for your email auto-responders to arrive with something new and interesting for them.

-The more you can keep your people interested, the more they will put into their own business. This will result in your business seeing positive results, as well.

-These steps lead to yet another in your sales funnel strategy. At this point, you could be selling both on the front and back end. Both income sources are helping you build a profitable sales funnel and business that you've been trying to build.

Finally, with your list growing, you can relax.  The difficult first-steps toward success have been taken.