You absolutely do need lessons. Find a good teacher. And shop around for studios to see what their deals are. Some of the chains require that you sign up for a whole bunch of lessons before you know whether the teacher is any good; this is clearly to be avoided. OTOH, my best teacher used to teach in a chain. If he were local now (Tom! move down here!) I'd sign up with him no matter what.

There are a lot of dances. Smooth, Latin, new dances like Salsa, unusual ones like Paso Doble. Try to work on a few of these at first, not all at once. Since you've started Salsa, continue that, and add the other Latins like ChaCha, Rhumba, and Bolero. Then add the smooths like waltz and foxtrot.

My 2cents.