There are so many online resources.
First of all, a site completely based on effective self study
TextFugu however this site will cost you. either $20/month or $120once and get to use the site forever.
This is a set of
video lessons from the 80's or 90's. a little bit entertaining lol.
Tae Kims Guide to Learning Japanese is a great site. An upperclassman of mine who has studied for 4 years highly suggests it (many others have also).
hiragana/katakana practice:
Real KanaKids Web Japan - made for kids of course, but it has a lot of culture games and information so culture is fun and easy to learn about on this site
it's handy to be able to
type in japanese.
Learn Japanese - This sight is best for it's HUGE vocab lists
Erin's Challenge is a site with video lessons set up with a story line. The story follows a foreign exchange student in japan named Erin. It's cute and fun and I think it's kind of effective
smile I hope that's helpful!
I am fairly certain that TextFugu and Tae Kim have other suggested websites listed somewhere on the sites
smile