You also probably have to try to be the type of person, that the type of person you’re looking for, is looking for. And go to the place(s) that the type of person you’re looking for would likely go.
It helps to just be yourself, in that if you relax and respond naturally, as though women were also people, you may not stumble over yourself trying to be someone who you’re not in order to impress someone you wouldn’t normally like. This, of course, assumes that your natural responses to things are pleasant and not snide or rude.
Suffice it to say you should try to make (a) real life friend(s), and attempt for at least one of those friends to be female. Then at some point, ask her if she wants to do something somewhere just the two of you.
I say all that, but then I met my wife while walking back to the dorm from a Super Bowl party at college. You never know where you’ll meet her. But one thing I’ve learned from being married is that, since I’m not on the market anymore, I’m much more relaxed around women which makes it easier for me to approach them. Don’t sell yourself short and just talk to women like you talk to anyone (again, assuming you normally try to be civil) and one of them will probably talk to you too.