I would purchase a RoomService2000 membership.

Note:  Only a few Minnesota providers are on the RoomService2000 site. However, your preference (Ms. Eden) is a member.

Note:  I was stuck (new to the hobby -- no provider references) in your same boat.

Note:  Most of your side concerns can be addressed with one thought -- Do Not Be Cheap!

and sometimes I still feel like one, but I've been around long enough to have picked up a few things, and I've been lucky enough to have avoided getting busted. Hope this stuff helps you out.

1. Figure out your budget.

A lot of the advice that follows isn't going to be much help if you want to meet with girls every month but only have $100 you can part with during the month. Figure out how much you can put away toward the hobby over the course of three, six, twelve months, then parcel out the cash between encounters and safety measures below. The less you spend on safety, the more likely something will come back to bite you -- maybe not LE, but your family finding out.

2. Get a hobby smartphone.

A 'hobby phone' is a given -- you've got to have something you can use to communicate with your 'girlfriends' that isn't going to give you away if your wife or daughter asks to use your phone (or just borrows it thinking you won't mind). But with so many resources available on the web, and so many ladies willing to schedule and coordinate via e-mail, a smartphone that can handle all this traffic without involving your home PC, your work PC, or other devices your family might have access to will help you keep this part of your life separate from the home life. Inexpensive, no-contract Android phones may well be the way to go here.

3. Use a verification service.

The 'big two' as far as I can tell for MN ladies are DateCheck and Preferred411. If you have an account there, you can use that as your screening reference without having to worry about potential encounters calling you at work to confirm that you're not an undercover police officer. These will seem pricey, but the convenience is worth the expense to many hobbyists. Ironically, the less money you have to spend on providers, the more valuable a verification service will be, because most providers prefer references from other providers to be fairly recent (you might have changed since you saw Dahlia Delight 18 months ago, after all). Once you've established a frequent habit or found a regular, the verification service isn't as critical, but for me as a newbie, it made it much easier to meet providers with a minimum of hassle.

4. Check reviews!

TER isn't the only site with reviews, but it's a solid one, despite the occasional thread that gets started complaining about inconsistencies in ratings, etc. The keys are to look for ladies with characteristics that you like (bust size, ethnicity, services offered, etc.) and that have a number of positive reviews. (Pro tip: a few bad reviews in amidst a bunch of good reviews shouldn't turn you off, especially if the 'bad' reviewer doesn't give a good explanation of why he's leaving a bad review -- every provider has good and bad sessions, and sometimes people just don't 'click'.) The more other hobbyists have successfully visited with a lady, the less likely it is that the lady is fronting for a sting operation. Pay particular attention to reviews that seem to be from hobbyists who are themselves newbies -- you'll often get a better idea of who the 'newbie friendly' ladies are from other hobbyists than from reading ads.

5. Trust your gut.

If an ad seems too good to be true (wow, she's a Penthouse model and she's only charging $80 for a half-hour?!?), it is. If you get to an in-call and start feeling a bad vibe, maybe the provider seems a bit flaky or you're getting mixed messages, walk away. Don't let the 'little head' override the big head; that's the fastest way to get in over all your heads.

I can't promise you a great first time, but if you follow these steps (and others that I've almost certainly forgotten and others will point out), I can all but guarantee you that you won't have a disastrous first time.

--
Pauper

Try providers like Anastasia or Alex first. Both are reputable, Backpage based with tons of reviews and you should have no problems getting together with them.

The recommendation to signup for a P411 membership is a nice idea but practically useless for a newbie right now and waste of your money. First virtually all providers on that site require okays or references to see you. Given that you are a newbie, you probably have no references and no okays. Providers required a standard two okays to see you but given all the drama in the community right now, most have increased that to four or five okays which you probably don't have. You will have a difficult time getting any provider of your choice to see you without references or okays on your account. Some might offer to see you if you shared with them your employment info but if you are willing to share your employment info with a provider, it would defeat getting a P411 membership in the first place. Just contact a provider directly and ask them to do an employment verification. Not something I recommend.

My recommendation is to wait until you have two references to vouch for you, then signup for the six month P411 free trial. If you like it after the trial period, continue with the one year membership for $129 or just cancel if you don't.

For a provider to verify you with RS2000, you need to give her your first name, last name city, state of residence and phone number. I honestly don't know what RS2000 verifies other than take $50 from you, write the info you give them on a piece of paper and confirm the same info with a provider when she contacts them. The provider is going to get the same info you give RS2000 and be able to do research on the internet with it anyway. You might as well save yourself the $50, cut RS2000 out and email the provider directly your first name, last name, city, state of residence, phone number and let her do her own screening with it.

If you do a search on TER under reviews, even better if you get a VIP membership so you can read the reviews, you fill find many providers that specialize in massage but also offer extras which are of high quality, not just "lack luster." You can write a couple reviews, maybe get a whitelist or two and go from there.

with something like DIY Massage and then move to fully nude Body Rubs. After three or four times you will have a few (weak) references. Then you could attempt a more full service provider. This is how I moved up the ranks. I found the process fun and rewarding. Join TER and become a VIP as soon as possible. I leave my ring on, the girls will know anyway.

BTW ... you sure can "talk the talk" for a newbie ... ???  

Always trust your gut ... responders as well.

STFU    know your rights!

if you truly have been doing your reading then I assume you've been on the newbie board quite a bit as well. Maybe you have seen this already if not, please read on.

Ask beforehand if they give references.  The last I knew, Alex did not give them.

Try the Bloomington Asians, a buck seventy for FS and great, cute girls. You don't need a lot for
screening either. No forms or websites. There are top providers who will see you for 30 min sessions,
a nice intro.

Just some tips for newbies that I've picked up through experience and listening to other people:

1.  Check out the newbie board; lots of good info there
2.  Get the VIP membership so you can see the review details and have access to the PM system
3.  Spend some time learning how to use the search functions for both reviews and the discussion board so you can identify ladies you would be interested in seeing based on the criteria that matter most to you (ex: looks, menu, rates, etc.)
4.  Figure out what kind of verification the ladies you would like to see require and how you can meet those requirements.  Some ladies are very particular.  Others are more flexible.  It's OK to contact them about it if you are not sure; just remember to be discreet.  Any  explicit questions will likely get you disconnect or otherwise ignored.
5.  Some ladies advertise here or on other sites that they are newbie friendly; keep an eye out for that.
6.  Consider joining a site such as P411 that pre-screens potential clients.  Some escorts will accept membership in such sites as satisfactory verification.
7.  If you are still puzzled by something after having done research, please feel free to ask questions.  I think for the most part we are willing to help out so long as we think you are not just freeloading on what others have learned.
8.  Develop a bit of a thick skin; some people are going to be jerks regardless.
9.  If an ad or offer looks TGTBT, it's probably TGTBT.
10. If you find yourself in any situation that doesn't feel quite right, trust your instincts and walk away.
11. As a newcomer, stick with well-reviewed ladies.  It's harder when you are inexperienced to figure out who the legit providers are from the fakes and scammers when they don't have reviews.
12.  Google is very useful.  Searching on a phone number or other info from an ad in Google can sometimes save you a lot of grief. Google Image Search is another very useful tool to search for other places where pictures in an ad are being used.
13. To help uncover ads that are using someone else pics Google Image Search and Tineye are useful tools.  Much better to find out ahead of time that the girl you are thinking of calling is using the pics from some porn star or model or that the pics have been used in ads from one side of the country to the other.
14.  Get an anonymous hobby email that is not through your work, school, or anything connected to your real life (yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc.) and use it for all your hobby email activity and for nothing else.  Be sure you include nothing that identifies who you really are when you create it.
15.  Get a prepaid phone that you use for nothing else other than hobby phone calls and pay cash for it and whatever refill minutes you buy.