What is better - No Deposit Bonus or Rake Back deal?

Maybe question seems a bit weird at start, but I'll explain.

I have friend who wants to start playing online poker and I'm going to teach him a little and point him in the right direction.
He doesn't want to deposit as he knows about no deposit bonuses and/or just wants to try to make a lot of money out of nothing.

Now he's wondering if he should get no deposit bonus of 10$/50$/100$ (depends on what he stumbles across) or if he should get a 27-30% rakeback deal and then struggle with freerolls for some time, but if he win any money from freerolls he would have rake back deal which IMO is not bad.

What's your opinion on this?

How much can rake back help you later or if you're grinding a lot (guess lot, I have no rakeback deal myself sadly).

If any of you also know how hard/easy are freerolls on Full Tilt Poker (because he wants to join there).
How many people on average, and how many paid places if you're familiar.

Thanks!

Rakeback rakeback rakeback. That should be enough but i'll expand. If you have tracking software then you'll see how much rake you pay. I've put in about 10k hands at 10nl (maybe a bit less) and i've generated about $40 in rakeback on FT. When you start seriously playing then not having rakeback is a serious disadvantage, I mean very big.

If he really does want to start without a bankroll, suggest joining another smaller site with the no deposit bonus and if he grinds that up do a respectable roll, he can transfer it to Full Tilt on a rakeback account.

On the flip side joining FT with rakeback and a first time deposit will always be the best option as if he is a losing player (very likely) then the rakeback/bonus could make him a winner/break even player.

Just be very careful at losing the option of rakeback on a big site you may want to make your permanent home in the future. Once you sign up with an affliate (for the no deposit), there's no going back.

short term it works out about the same, longterm rakeback would be extremly beneficial

If they are beginners, 1st deposit bonus is not a good idea as they would probably not be able to unlock it.

Rakeback seems the best on the long run, even if I don't understand why you're talking about freerolls.

If your friend just wanna play freerolls, then his choice will be very easy
You don't unlock any bonus with freeroll, and you don't generate rakeback too

I'll be the pessimist in the crowd....Take the free cash up front. Especially at a smaller site like others have mentioned.

And here's why...In all likelihood if he's just starting out playing poker (even if he does well live) he will most likely lose it. Lose it while he's not playing with his own cash.

Once he understands the online game, then get on with a bigger site and take the rakeback--better over the long run imo.

Cheers

Thank you guys! Lots of opinions.

But I do agree with taking rakeback deal. One can lose no deposit bankroll in a week but you can't get rakeback deal again in your life (or am I wrong?).

The reason I asked about freerolls is if he takes rakeback offer, he'll be looking into ways to make money out of nothing, so he'll probably play freerolls, or play those 500k play money tournaments.

I was just reading another thread here, you can even sell play chips..
Wow.. Thats' just crazy.

I'll probably tell him to join Poker770 with 8$ free so he can get feel of online poker. Is Poker770 solid platform (in context of not big, so he can grind there and later move money to FTP)

Thanks