I've met all too many youngsters that have learned magic from "You Tube" (and I can't say I blame them, there is an amazing amount of information online there... there's also an amazing amount of BAD magic online there) In general for the total newbie I send them to the book shop to see if their interested enough to #1: make that much of an effort to try and learn & #2: follow up on #1 (by actually learning something from a book)
Man - oh - man, I can't imagine a more challenging endeavor than trying to wade through the muck of magicdom in this day and age. There is SO much CRAP out there, it's unreal. Go ahead, Take a look
http://www.murphysmagic.com/ (but keep your wallet in your pocket! at least for now...)
If you are a beginner or know someone who is:
I generally suggest Josh Jay's "The Complete Course". It's well written with some strong material (some say too strong) and he includes DVD which can be immensely helpful when learning this stuff. For under $20, you can't go wrong (heck, I bought it for my kid) Here's the Amazon Link
http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Complete-Course-Joshua-Jay/dp/0761149872/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386086991&sr=8-2&keywords=josh+jay
Note: Josh also runs Vanishing Inc (Along with Magi-bud Andi Gladwin) I think they have one of the best online magic shops in the business. Your can pretty much throw a dart and insure that whatever you're getting is gonna be good.
They've also released some great FREE books for the neophyte and you could do much worse than take a peek at
Over and Under offers some great newbie advice:
http://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic-downloads/free-magic-downloads/under-over/ and once you're ready to tread into the deep end, check out
"Magic in Mind"
Along with VInc there's some other great resources online.
One is Genii / Richard Kaufman's Magi-Pedia (think Wiki-Pedia, but all things magic)
Check it out:
http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Main_Page
Here's one worth researching :)
http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Doug_Conn
Genii also has a forum with some well informed magi that visit their pages, it's well worth joining
http://forums.geniimagazine.com/
Another forum that's chock full of info is "The Magic Cafe" (though at over 20,000 members, you get ALOT of bad with the good.) use any info attained from anyone online carefully:
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/index.php
Another wonderful resource (one that often offers some GREAT freebies) Is the
"Conjuring Arts Center"
http://conjuringarts.org/
and along similar lines:
Lybrary.com
an online e-book resourse with some truly wonderful freebies:
http://www.lybrary.com/free_ebooks.php?osCsid=97e6777ab24d9d9ada4ffb1a85e6c5d3
Perhaps the best course of action is to ask someone you trust. Meet some magi & acquire a mentor. Maybe Join a local magic club / organization, make some acquaintances.. Both the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians offer publications and clubs in most of the major cites in America. The fee for each is nominal and you get a magic publication (magazine) with each one that keeps you up to date with what's happening in the magic world.
There's lots of options and I just wanted to suggest those that who've limited their learning to youtube (or just video / DVD) that you explore some of the other options available. I hope some of these options help someone somewhere out there.
If you need more help, I'm always available. Fire a question.
