Nǐ hǎo! 你好! Congratulations (Gōng xǐ nǐ 恭喜你 ) on starting your new Platinum Chinese course! Learning to read, write and speak Chinese can be a daunting task, but with practice and perseverance, you can do it.  You mentioned that you're concerned about learning the thousands of characters that make up written Chinese (rightfully so!) Luckily, though tens of thousands of characters exist, remember that even a native speaking college graduate only knows on average 4,000 characters. With 2,000 characters, you will be able to accomplish most everyday tasks. Still, that's a lot, so Platinum Chinese provides you with some tips and plenty of practice.

1.  Use mnemonic devices: You'll notice as you go through Essential Chinese that the Take It Further sections teach you new characters, and often, give you a mnemonic device for each one. So for example, the character 有 looks a bit like a shelf where you keep things you *have.* Each time you learn a new character, try to come up with a mnemonic device, even if it's a stretch.
2.  Learn radicals: Chinese characters are made up of smaller components called radicals.  The LL Chinese Character Guide teaches you about 200 of these radicals that you can then use to decipher unfamiliar characters. For example, you'll often see the female radical in other characters. The connection with women will not always be apparent, but in some cases it is, for example in the character for mother: 妈.
3. Use Flashcards and Conversations with characters only: In the vocabulary modules in the online course, you will see a toggle below the cards that says "Pinyin On/Off." Every time you learn a set of new vocabulary words, do at least a few rounds of practice with the Pinyin turned off. You can do the same with our conversation modules. 
4. Practice writing: Perhaps the best way to cement a character in your memory is to practice writing it. In the Character Guide, you'll be taught types of strokes and stroke orders in some highly frequent characters. Take the time to do all of the writing practice in the guide and when you learn new vocabulary, make your own flashcards with the character written by you on one side and the English on the left.

With these tricks, you will build up your knowledge of characters more quickly, but have patience! It is a lot to learn!
Maybe some other Chinese learners have tips to share?