I have been learning German for last few years and have attempted a few things.
1) Read as much text as you can - you need to understand as it gets you used to speaking in a foreign tongue.
2) Get childrens book such as mister men in your chosen language,
2a) Read it through
2b) Translate word for word (1 page at a time)
2c) Read it through again
3) After you start to get some basics in place, such as simple questions answers, directions that sort of thing, someone metiioned a language exchange site, I prefer this language dash exchanges dot org - free and you can talk via skype, bare in mind this will be very strange and good chance the people your talking to will have better skills than you (but this is good thing), it also forces you to prepare for next time you talk.
4) Place at in local classifieds (gumtree) or something - ask to meet up at local cafe to exchange skills - im doing this with German chap - can be very interesting.
5) Lists - have vocab lists and attempt to remember them, these can be build up from step 2
6) Visit the county as much as you can, no substitute for this, in fact I was in the process of moving to frankfurt until last night when my job fell through..

sad times.
7) Night classes : I have done a few some better than others, positives are that your around like minded people, negatives are it takes time to get there and back, this time could be used to study.
8) Have fun - if your not sooner or later you will give up - a little and often.
9) Its a life long thing - I have been studying German near every day for 4 years and still very poor, but im cool with that...
Good luck