Where to meet dates

There are five main ways to meet potential dates.  Here they are in order of newness.

1. Family/Friend recommendations
2. Professional Matchmakers
3. Bars/party/raves/etc.
4. Classes
5. Online dating services.

Family/friends have limited access to potential dates, but know you well. 

Professional Matchmakers are expensive, but, assuming they are reasonably competent, are also probably the most effective.   They save you a lot of effort rejecting people that are inappropriate.  Here, you get what you pay for  - so I suggest you 'man up' and pay for the most expensive version you can get.  Note, I would not use a service that does not charge women as much as the man.  While I favor the guy paying for the first date, I see a lot of problems with giving women a break on the price.  One of the main advantages of paying so much is that only a better quality date will be able to afford their services.  

Bars have the huge advantage of alcohol, but also the disadvantage of excess alcohol.  They are moderately expensive, but tend to give you a large selection of people.  The key is to find a bar/club/rave that is known to be a 'meat market'.  If you go to a 'meat market' you expect to be hit on - so most of the people there will looking.   "Meat Market" is not an insult, it is a giant banner calling the faithful.

Classes can be a great place to meet people.  I am not just talking high school/universities, but adult education ones as well.  It is not that hard to find some that are focused on singles. Check your local college as well as the internet. Meet Market Adventures is one that I like (http://www.meetmarketadventures.com/index.php) , because they focus on singles and are reasonably priced.   They are international (USA and Canada only, so far) and offer travel events.

Online dating services come in many variations.   Like professional matchmakers, you often get what you pay for.  In general, I do not recommend the free ones (Plenty of Fish/OK Cupid/etc.)   The problem is people sing up as a lark and don't commit.  That is also a problem with eharmony's 'free weekends'.   I am a serious dater and am looking for serious people.   There are both generic dating sites and specialized ones.  Usually, the greater number of active, serious people wins, so I would not go to a specialized one, unless that specialization is a mandatory quality.   Jdate is not just for jews, and in Manhattan is has a large number of people.  But if you are gay, I would probably use a dating service that specializes in gays.  I hear that the more sexual ones (Adult friend finder for example), tend to have large number of straight men and few straight women, so that defeats the purpose.

Keep one thing in mind - attractive people will generally 'win' no matter which method you use.  That is, if you do badly at bars, don't expect to be a winner at online services.  A good professional matchmaker is about the only way to change this - in part by steering the less attractive people towards people that care more about inner beauty.