Find a tutor or a language exchange partner online or in person. Most websites that offer podcasts or language services will have Chinese-speaking tutors on hand. A guided study program with Chinesepod.com, which includes teacher support and weekly language practice via phone, costs $49 a month. Echineselearning.com offers tutorials run by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese for as low as $7 per class. Italki.com is a great resource to find a language tutor or language exchange partner. Livemocha.com is another site that connects foreign language partners.
Decide on what you want to learn and how often you want to learn it. Chinesepod.com informative podcasts that give you a slice of real China and useful vocabulary. Zhongwen.com supplies you with free Chinese texts and novels online. Loquella.com offers the Foreign Service Institute's rigorous Chinese course online for free. Choose a specific lesson plan with your tutor, like listening to and studying one podcast per lesson or reading one passage of a novel each week.
Review what you studied and any pertinent vocabulary before you talk to your tutor each week. Try to make up ten new sentences using the new words from your studies. Make flashcards of the words and study them. Skritter.com is an online Chinese flashcard program that will also help you practice writing characters. Byki (www.byki.com) has a useful flashcard program that downloads onto your computer.
Have your tutor ask you questions related to your life that use the vocabulary and grammatical constructions you've studied. Have your tutor give you constructive feedback at the end of the lesson.
Ask the tutor any questions you might have, no matter how silly or simple they might seem. Remember the tutor is there to help you learn and that making a lot of mistakes is natural.
Request that your tutor assign you small homework assignments that will force you to practice using Chinese during the week when you aren't speaking to them. Make sure you keep reviewing the words you've learned, even after you have moved on to the next lesson.