my experiance
I believe that you need to play in person with people you know and respect at least once a month, they will tell you if your walking the wrong path. Weather you want them to or not.
Playing online will only take you so far, if you plan on playing at real tourney's in the future, face to face is detramental.
If you don't have anyone experienced to play with, play with your family, You can learn alot about what you really know by teaching others! Be a mentor to your kids, spouse, parents, and freinds.
Even well actually best if it's only HEADS-UP. This is where most players are the least experianced, nervous, and where we all want to be.
my moto is: If you can't beat one person most of the time, what good are you in a croud.
Look for quality tourneys in your area, I'm a member of HeartlandPokerTour, I don't play their online room anymore, it's rather overrun with trash players. But the casino tourney's are pretty good.
Go to heartlandpokertour.com and check if we are in your area if you want or just look at the past tourney pics and stories. Satalites are affordable.