I will try to make this short.
Are you looking for sex, or are you looking for long term relationship or to get married. They really do have different approaches.
First, you sound smart and studious. So read books about women. Like a rubix cube, if you don't understand what makes them work, how the respond, what the like and dislike, you will have a much more difficult time.
If you are looking for sex then
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_MethodIt teaches you how to approach women, never straight on, but at the side. How to tell a joke to break the ice and introduce yourself to someone you don't know. How to practice this. How to look for IOI's (indicators of interest) and Kino escalation. It is an instruction book, play by play. Very effective for nerds, the socially inept and those who have no confidence. You practice it on women you don't know or messier want to have a long term relationship. Like a rubix cube, it is a game, you have to keep trying, if something does not work, you try a different way. It also shows what not to do. The TV show proved the method worked as they took nerds, unattractive guys, men without confidence and got them good looking women.
It works, I have used the methods myself although I did not have to use the negs
because I was not going after the hottest women. You can increase your value in other ways.
This worked very well just to meet new women.
If you are against doing this (you sounded like you want a process to follow to get the girl you want and a playbook to get confidence and this is it.) There are more traditional methods but understanding women is key. Read Men are from mars women from venus which will help you understand them better.
You find, women are not as stuck on looks as men are and that if you ACT confident, even though you are not (how many men are nervous on the inside when they are woman hunting but you don't know it because they know how to act)
So, if you look at it as a problem solving excersize, and a woman is a rubix cube that needs to be figured out, you read books, you don't give up, soon you will figure out the pattern to use and that it is fairly simple you will be able to repeat success. Realize even watching the videos, they will tell you if a woman is not giving IOI's then get out and move on to the next because if you don't you will only wallow in your failure. And there will be many failure until you get it right.. Just like a rubix cube.
Some may disagree that this is not a good starting point, but it is proven. Some people say that P90x does not work but we all know those are the people that did not take the time to do the workouts because if they did, you would see a difference. That is all the time I have so good luck to you.
No one on this board is going to be able to give you how to be confident lesson in a few short pages. This