I would tell a newbie:

1: Don't worry about the hanzi for now learn to speak a little first, you don't have to completly ignore them and here are a bunch of computer tools that will help with annotation etc.

2: Learn pinyin as a priority the more of a beginner you are the more you will need it to help you, if you delay learning it too long it will be much less of help.

3: Get a feel for the sound of the language, whilst you are learning the first few phrases, listen to lots of real Chinese, try to listen out for the odd simple words as you learn them. Your target may be to get to the stage where you can immediately identify the differnece bettween Chinese, Japanease and Cantonese. When you hear real Chinese as a stream of discrete syallables and the cadence is in your blood all that remains is to find out what the syallable mean (easy eh?)

4: Learn through your ears as much as you can, thats where language started, you can learn through the written medium later.

5: Don't even attempt to speak until the pressure to speak comes from within you, don't feel pressurised to speak.

6: Define your goals and be realistic, if you want to learn relatively fast you are going to have to dedicate a large amount of time. Identify "dead time" in your life that can be utilised.

7: If you hit a blockage don’t kill yourself over it, work around it and carry on with the other stuff, come back to it later (you may find it has already gone).

8: Have fun.

Just a few ideas, this assumes a self-motivated independant learner.