Honestly I don't know how people can just say
That would have never worked out for me. IMO context is everything, find some nice excuses to spend time with her/him and show her.him everything you've got. And by this I don't mean that you should go and ask that person out but rather act as though you don't know something (like a lesson perhaps or an entire subject) and ask her to help you with it (that's how my gf got me lol), really anything that seems innocent or natural will do. You can't just go out to a restaurant with a complete stranger. Imagine how it'd be if the 2 of us went out? Knowing myself it'd be like 20 minutes of awkwardness until we'd realize that it's not really going anywhere. So find some context, a good excuse to spend time with someone and the more you get to do that the more other person will get to know you and the more you'll get to know the other person. You could be talking about ancient Romans that probably have nothing to do with love or romance but it' not always about that. I've never thought I'd end up with my gf since I've never really seen those well hid features of hers but after a while I was certain that she was the one for me.
So it's all about the base(jk), it's all about context. The more interaction you get the better the chance you'd eventually have, and the more natural and unforced the interaction is the more your true personality will have a chance to shine.
Lastly don't confess too early, it means surrender. Ideally you want the other person to confess first because knowing that someone is into you is kind of a turn off and you're risking possible future relationship if you freak them out straight away. (it happened to me)
Oh and God bless LDRs, they're great starting points.