The best study method is the one you stick to with extreme dedication.
Having a guided course is the best way, so using something like a textbook is a necessity for a beginner. Even a bad textbook is a valuable tool if you use it regularly.
More important than finding the "best" ways to do things, a beginner should really be asking what are some things NOT to do.
Don't try to translate songs for "practice". Listening to music is well and good, and can provide you with an easy and fun way to familiarize yourself with Japanese sounds. However, it is no good for vocabulary or grammar study due to a lot of colloquialisms and non-standard abbreviations to fit the rhythm and meter of the song.
Don't try to learn Kanji one at a time like a lot of methods teach you. This is a brute force way and MOST people cannot learn things like this. They will not remember what they studied one, two, or five weeks from now. Try to build vocabulary in a meaningful way. Textbooks are good for this, and later in study, from reading other Japanese texts.
Do not always try to match Japanese words to english ones. It is rarely a 1 to 1 kinda thing, and insisting that everything line up into neat little columns of THIS=THAT will confuse and slow your comprehension.
Don't give up. Realize there will be several stages in your study where you feel like you just can't progress. You are stuck or on a plateau. Using sheer willpower to find new ways to kick-start your study again is a must at these points, or you'll fall off the mountain.
This said, there are a few online resources that are of value to you.
Tae Kim's guide is a good alternative to a paper textbook.
Rikaichan (with Firefox internet browser) is widely regarded as a must-have. Google it.
Space ALC offers example sentences in Japanese and english. Don't be intimidated by the all-japanese page. Type in the search bar near the top in english, and you're given relevant results. Granted, this page isn't a whole lot of use to you until you've had a little more experience. Bookmark it till then.
Finally, you could always try Rosetta Stone. I use it.

People are divided as to whether or not it's a good method. I like it for the same reason that other people don't. It does NOT give you technical explanations of grammar or vocabulary. You learn them the same way a child learns a native language (and adults don't like to have that kind of fuzzy understanding). But, you can always give it a demo at
http://www.rosettastone.com.
I think I've written MORE than enough now.. hehe.. um. Yeah, good luck, Kei and UberGeek
EDIT: Yudan posted while I was writing.... he's so much more eloquent than I am. *envy*