I too was married long term (18yrs), found out my husband forgot HE was married, then divorced his cheating *kitten*.
Fast forward a few years, I jumped back into dating by putting up a profile on Yahoo Personals.

Some tips for you:
1. Know what you want.
If you're not a fan of long distance relationships, don't go out on dates with guys who live 100 miles away.
If you don't want to date a guy with multiple kids by multiple women, dont answer those ads (or respond to those messages).

2. Develop a thick skin.
Online dating can be fun, but it can also be brutal. There are a LOT of *kitten* out there. You have to be prepared to weed through them.

3. Don't be afraid to make the first move.
If you see a profile you like, message him!

4. Satefy
Like the previous poster, I tend to be cautious. I chatted online for weeks, then moved to phone calls for weeks, then when I felt comfortable, did a coffee date (short and in a public place) to which I drove. If I felt rushed into meeting face to face, I cut him off. If I felt the chatting was getting too sexual too fast, I already knew what he was after and cut him off.

5. More Safety
Also, I never ever let dates pick me up at my house. At the time, I had kids at home and never wanted them to feel weird about strange men in THEIR home. I chose to drive to the meeting place. I do not like friends/family "surprising" me by showing up on my doorstep unannounced, let alone a dude I barely know.

6. Kids and Dating
I did not let my casual dates around my kids. When I started dating my current husband more seriously (after about 9 months), I let him come to my home to pick me up or we hung out on nights my kids were at their father's house.
It wasn't until after a year that I let current hubby meet my kids. We got engaged a few months later (and married 2 years after that). I don't believe in the "revolving door" policy when it comes to dating and kids. Kids need stability and shouldn't see mom being used like a hotel, if you know what I mean!

7. Have fun!
Don't take dating too seriously. Get out there, have some fun and enjoy the variety. Don't go looking for Mr. Right. You'll find him when the time is right.

:happy:

So how's the dating game going, OP?

I think even bad dates can be good. You can learn from them and they always make for a good story. A nice lady I liked from an old workplace set me up with her son after I'd recently got out of a LTR. I thought it was weird, but as plans developed, it turned out I had to go pick him up. No real explanation given. Again, nice lady and I had already said sure why not and I had nothing better to do so whatever. Lol Well, he was dressed to the nines in his finest beer shirt, shorts, baseball hat, and dirty sneakers. Yup, he had a DUI he was 'working on' (probably as hard as he had worked on the evening's outfit), a kid (I did not date guys with child support issues), but he paid for a nice dinner and I made a good time of it. Of course, there was no second date. He kept calling afterwards too, poor guy. His mom must've seen fixing potential in me.

I met my current beau on eHarmony in 2009 and we're set to get married here soon. If something happened btw me and him beyond our control (God forbid), I would def go back to the computer. He's good on paper and in person and I seriously couldn't have picked better if I had custom ordered him out of a catalog. ;-) That's not to say all has been perfect, but I am a super bad picker in real life so I would stick to EH and their 29 dimensions vs. mine. I had a lot of fun dating in between though. I really enjoyed being single a lot and probably locked it down with my man a little sooner than I'd've liked due to our long distance connection (Florida & MI), BUT it all worked out.

The short of it is have fun going out, don't take it all so seriously, and let whoever turns out to be special prove himself to you 1ST before taking things to the next level. Not sure if I would be reaching out to dudes online for initial contact. I think that's their job in a metaphysical universal sense.