If you're going to go online dating and leave the regular social scene; I want to tell you not to feel bad, or weird that you're doing that. It's perfectly normal to be a lazy dater. Let me give you a few entry level online dating secrets. Trust me there are a host of lazy beautiful women who stay online and wait for a confident good looking guy to talk to them; because of all the losers who approach them in public.
So what do you want to do; and how do you do it? I'd start out in the practice field, which is craigslist. Go to your city or if you really want to practice go to another city and just hit up the personals. Other places you could go to for free are the myspaces, facebooks, and other social networks that do have a section for dating.
From there just greet women that you want to talk to; but keep in mind that you aren't thirsting to date at this point; you're just getting your feet wet. If someone responds, keep talking to them and keep track of what made each woman respond and what made them keep talking to you. You will probably do this without pictures but you should try with both (with and without your pic and with and without the woman's pic).
This will help you get your verbal game going. And since it's over the Internet you can talk as slow as you need to be sure of saying the right thing. The important thing is to keep track of what got you responses so you can sharpen that part of the process. Peace, rock on and get to practicing.
Chris Bondae