Tips for a Beginner?

Privet; how's it going forum? I'm new to the site and new to the Russian language! Lately I've become really infatuated with Russian; I've never been the type of person to be interested in aother language and try speaking in another tongue, but something about Russian just captivated me and got me eager to learn. I find it a really beautiful language and the more I learn about Russia it seems like a really beautiful country too. I don't have a lot of money to spend on Russian speaking packs or private tutoring, so I've kind of been left to my own devices to learn the alphabet and pick up a few words. I recently purchased a language pack on the iPhone called Russian Audio Flash Cards (Declan Software) which is actually pretty decent, but it's only guided by a female speaker and lacks words to be spoken by males (I'm male) and females, which from what I've learned is impartant in this language.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions on where to go from here, that would be much appreciated! I noticed there's quite a few lessons by users on Youtube which I need to check out, if there's anything else you think might help me, or a particular aproach you think I should take towards learning Russian, please let me know. Spasibo!

#1 Tip: Be motivated. No one can do this for you. If you're not motivated, don't kid yourself, find something else to be passionate about.

Search this topic for others who asked. In general you'll hear to get a book (The New Penguin Russian Course, or other).
There's also the college course (free):
http://www.freelanguagecourses.com/lang ... course-51/

Get a penpal or voice chat going. Talking to a native one a week (or more) will get you to sound right and they'll be able to point out errors in any learning materials.