I wish I'd found Mandarin Blueprint years ago
I had already studied Mandarin for 3 years when I came across some Mandarin Blueprint videos on Youtube that really helped with my pronunciation. Then I came across this fascinating way of visualizing Chinese characters which can also help you remember the tones and exact pronunciation. I was skeptical at first, but when I visited their site and took the benefit of their free introductory course, I began to really see how well the Hanzi Movie method can work. It still took some getting used to, especially since I had already learned over a thousand characters. But for the new characters I had never learned before, I was amazed at how quickly I was able to remember how to write and pronounce each character, as well as remember the meaning. Unlike before I was able to remember and distinguish many similar looking characters. Now I'm hooked on the method and I can't see any other good way to learn Mandarin characters, especially in the short time that it has taken so far. I highly recommend their course. I think it's well worth it and it can save you a lot of grief trying to learn Mandarin by rote the old-fashioned way.