Advice from Leo Tunkle

Anki deck "spoonfed chinese" (its about $2)

People say "you should make your own cards", but this is the exception. Anki has a feature where you listen to a native speaker and repete the sentences.

You can look up how to record yourself on Anki.

Get a graded reader, this one is good: The Secret Garden: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Level 1 (Chinese Edition): Yang, Renjun, Burnett, Frances Hodgson, Pasden, John: 9781941875001: Amazon.com: Books

It's a book completely in mandarin kept to a very small character set. This is a good way to pick up grammar.

Once you can write about ten characters, you should focus more on reading.

After you write a few chars focus on reading them.