When browsing around all the poker and other gaming sites on the web, you'll find that everyone, from the smallest site to a giant like PartyCasino offers a wide variety of bonuses and promotional offers to encourage you to throw your lot in with their crowd. This is something you can use to your significant advantage, if you know what to look for.
Remember when you'd save and save as a kid to buy whatever it was that dominated your thoughts at any given moment, only to have a big disappointment when it wasn't as great once you had it? Hopefully not! But it does happen, and it's worth thinking about how much more confident you'd have been had someone said to you "buy this toy, and I will actually give it to you for free. Keep your money." This is the case with gaming sites, as they're offering up to 100% when it comes to matching your first deposit, and that makes for some happy betting.
This is due to the fact that the money you were going to play with previously is now effectively play money that you can put towards making big bets or getting into games without having to worry about damaging your initial investment. A solid way of gaining a foothold in paid games, it also means that you're able to establish yourself as a winner using the cash given to you when you arrive, or even lose a little without getting demotivated, as you're not actually losing the money you had before you signed up.
Bonuses, such as recharge bonuses or first-play bonuses, will help keep you topped up, and if you play regularly then this is important. Recharging your account is a display of loyalty in the site's eyes, and they want to reward this as much as possible, as many people account-hop as this allows them to build up a heady sum from wins made through money given to them upon joining. Using recharge bonuses is just another way to keep yourself afloat.
Of course, if you're looking around for extra bonuses, it's worth searching the web for bonus codes, as these are always featured on banner ads and then catalogued by sites who want to help those who may not have seen that ad to get a good deal on their gaming experience. Check these sites often, as they will give you an indication of how often the code works, when it was issued and perhaps even when it expires.
The most important part of choosing a site is, alongside the bonuses and sign-up offers, enjoying the site itself. If you hate the software but you love another site that offers slightly lower bonsues, it may be worth going with that one for now. Think of it as shopping, except you're always the millionth customer.