Hi Alan,
For a 28 year old who has never had a girlfriend, it would be best to do the work on yourself first.
You are too focused on getting women that you meet online to like you.
As you mentioned, when these women don’t respond to you online, it destroys your self-esteem.
You have to work on your self-esteem first.
Find the root cause of what it is that makes you feel less than and start working to overcome it.
Whether it has to do with your build or something that you are yet to achieve, this is the time to address it.
Attacking this head on will do a lot in building your sense of self-worth.
Try to forget about women for now.
They will most certainly come as long as you do the proper work on yourself first.
When you have done the necessary work on yourself, try to use a different approach with women.
In essence, stop focusing on asking them for their phone numbers.
Just get into the habit of talking to them without any expectation of what will come out of the conversation.
Just talk and nothing more.
This is often what will build your confidence over time.
It takes away the pressure.
Eventually, if you practice this diligently, you will notice that women will actually be the ones who start asking for your phone number or willingly volunteering their phone numbers to you without any prompting.
Once you get to this stage with women, it will not be long before you get your first girlfriend.
If you want to get better with women that you meet online, get my online dating course.