How do I strike up a conversation?

Pick and choose your battles as it were, a lot of girls enjoy the chase, so try to make it fun. Also try to pick girls that might respond, Like a girl standing alone, (unless she's waiting for her boyfriend =p) what does she have better to do, right? lol works better than going up to a girl surrounded by her girlfriends. But that can work sometimes too... depends on the girls.

Anyway, happy hunting ;-)

For a guy like you who seems intelligent, charming and witty, you shouldn't have any problems at all. You just need to get over that first few moments - walking over to a stranger and introducing yourself through a joke, a question, a drink, etc. Those moments are brutal but they are over quickly. One way around it is to have a mutual friend introduce you to someone you find interesting. Otherwise, have a few drinks, take a deep breath and do it. If it doesn't work, do it again and again until it does.

If you use a line, use the worst possible one you can think of and make a joke out of it. Then tell her that you know how foolish you sound but you couldn't think of another way to introduce yourself and - insert compliment to her here -. Unless you are setting your sights on shallow and dumb, don't be afraid to make an ass out of yourself. Sincerity goes a long way, much farther than the smoothest casanova moves.

Unlike some, I don't believe in quick tips and tricks to fix a fundamental issue of improving your ability to communicate with women. You sound like one intelligent articulate guy as you claim to be and I hope you know what I mean. Real issues require real solutions.

But hey, with some good work you can achieve great results. It's a process, but it can be a lot of fun.

Although I do have a few products on there, this is not my business. I do this because I really enjoy helping people improve their dating life and the bulk of my services is free.

I'm pretty shy myself. Being observant is the best way to strike up a conversation. Notice something about a girl you're interested in and go with that. If you're any good at small talk the conversations can go anywhere, all you need is to stumble across a topic you're both interested in or have in common.