Rote learning, even native speakers learn it that way. There is no other methods if you want to seriously learn the Chinese characters.

It depends on what you want: Flashcards for reading recognition. Writing them, many, many times over, if you want to learn writing.

You can buy some chinese charecters' copywriting online. sorry, maybe my expression will confuse you. It's a type of plastic card with chinese charecter strokes on it, you just follow the strokes to learning how to write. But if you just want to improve oral chinese, find a language partner will be a better way.

wikipedia is the best

make a chinese friend