Online networking: how effective is it as a starting point?

[Brian2]

How effective is online networking if used as a starting point, and not as tool for an existing community?

 

Here's the situation:

 

I'm looking to start finding people besides the same old types and outside the same old places. The only problem is that I'm unlikely in the extreme to change my routines at this point (I can't afford to change my job and location at this time, and my few hobbies require repeated and consistent time to be of any value, so I'm almost always in the exact same places week after week.)

 

It's common among many people (especially people my age and younger--I'm in my mid-20s) to do the online-networking-site thing. However, in their cases they do in cases where a critical mass of previously-existing connections is already there (a la highschoolers who make MySpace sites because all their friends have them, or college students who make Xanga or Live Journal sites to tell fellow clique members where they're going to be clubbing the next weekend night). I'm considering going online into social networking sites, but in my case I'll be starting from scratch (no previously existing social connections in that arena) and specifically looking against type (I see enough of what I currently run into in daily life) for friends, local connections, and dates.

 

For those who have done the online thing before: is this a worthwhile proposition, and if it is, what are good ways to go about making it work?