Tips for online dating?

I am young woman new to online dating. It makes me nervous, but for me, the entire point of it is to meet people in person. How should I go about doing this? I understand that I should be in a very public place with a friend and whatnot. But before that, how long should I talk to someone? I'm really hitting it off with this guy. We talk for hours every night for a few days now. We live near each other so I don't see the point in just talking online when we could meet face to face. I wouldn't want to waste time online just to meet in person and really not like him. Or the opposite, spend time dilly dallying when we could be together falling in love. So, how long do I wait before we meet? Should I wait for him to ask me? Or do I stop thinking about meeting and just focus on maybe Skyping next? (Which I am nervous to webcam even with friends so help me try to avoid this!)