It seems that these days, there are endless ways to make money online. There are review sites such as Ciao and Dooyoo that pay their members to write about certain products that they have used or own. There are of course paid survey sites such as globaltestmarket.com and mytns.com that distribute a ride range of surveys for the members to participate in. Then there are sites such as rpoints.com and quite ironically ipoints.co.uk, that award members for signing up to various sites and schemes via their web pages. They are all good for a little earner on the side, but won't make you rich overnight. I will try and make my review as clear as possible and weigh up the positives and negatives of joining rpoints.com.

~Signing Up~

It is very simple and straightforward to join rpoints.com. You have to register a few basic details such as your name, date of birth and home address. They then ask for an email address and that you set up a username and password. Once that is all done and dusted, you can begin to earn your rpoints.

~The Site~

The website has recently undergone a small facelift and the colour scheme is very refreshing and quite funky. It is easy to navigate around, with all of the sections and areas clearly labelled and headed. The pages load up extremely quickly and once they do so, you are struck with surprising clarity that greets you. There aren't any parts that you can't understand and it is all very simple.

I really like the way that they have organised the content of the site, making it user friendly for all of the users. It is a site that I myself and I'm sure everyone will feel comfortable with using. If there any difficulties that you do encounter, they can be easily resolved by contacting a moderator or posting on the forum.

~Earning Points~

The beauty about rpoints.com, is that there are many ways in which you can earn yourself points. I will break each it down into clear sections that makes them easy to understand in the next section. There are three main ways which I will discuss in the next three sections of the review.

~Easy Points~

There are points that you can earn without actually spending a single penny, so they are effectively free money. These come in two different forms. There are sites that offer you a set amount per click, when you select a link from their site to one of the partners. An example of this would be kelkoo.co.uk. You click through to kelkoo via rpoints.com and then search for a product. There will be a list of partner sites that stock the item and you will earn set amount of points for doing so. A break down of these sites is set out below.

-Ebay: Earn 3 points each time you visit and place a bid (at least the reserve price) or use a Buy-it-now link
-Kelkoo: Earn these points when you click on an a link: Car hire 15 pts; Travel / Flights 10 pts; Electrical/Computing 5 pts; Other categories / unique visit 2pts
-The High Street Web: Earn 5 points for each click through
-Dealtime: Earn 8 pts for Electrical, Computing & Appliances; 4 pts for other categories
-Price Guide UK: Earn 4 points when you click through to a retailer site
Carsource: Earn 2 points per search session

(There are restrictions on how many times you can earn points via these sites each day, so do look at the details)

If you just take 15-20 minutes time out during the day just to make a few click throughs to these sites then you can earn yourself a nice bit of cash. It is very easy, although maximising your point earnings does take a little bit of practice and trial and error. It is often advisable to go through the rpoints link for every single search that you make, just to make sure that you get the points. I am very comfortable and very happy with the amount of points that I have accumulated by doing this and it is relatively simple and not very time consuming.

The other way in which you can acquire free points, is to sign up to certain websites and offers via rpoints.com. There are points for signing up to everything from Ciao and Ebay to dating sites and free competitions. It is made clear how many points you will receive for each next to the links. With Ebay, you get 300 points just for signing up and then you are paid an extra 3 points every time you place a bid on an item that is higher than the reserve price.

~Rebates~

If you are a regular online shopper, then there is ample opportunity for you to earn money back on your purchases. If the product that you want to buy, is available in an rpoints.com partner site then should you choose to buy it from them you will receive a certain rebate. You can select the shop for the directory and then make sure that you click through to the site via the rpoints.com link, otherwise you won't get your points.

It will be made clear how much money you will receive back if you make a purchase from a particular site. It will say something along the lines of: 'Earn x% rebate on all purchases'. There are some sites that offer as much as 10% rebate and others that only offer one or two percent. It does all add up over time and if you spend £100 then you may be able to get £3-£4 of it back. I use the dominos.co.uk link to buy pizza and they offer 1.75% rebate, but I have managed to earn about £1 in rebates over the past couple of months. You can earn 3% on all purchases on amazon.co.uk, which is really good. Even if you use gift vouchers, you still get the rebate.

I think that you can earn yourself a lot of money if you shop online on a regular basis. There is such a lot of money going, if you shop this way and it is yours for the taking. If you purchase things via the internet, they are often cheaper anyway so you are getting a double saving if you purchase via rpoints.com. There are numerous shops available and new ones are being added all the time.

~Sign-Up Bonuses~

This isn't something that I have taken advantage of since using rpoints.com, but I can give a few basic details as to what it entails. There are numerous poker, betting and other gambling sites that you can join and get paid a certain number of rpoints for placing your first bet or making a deposit of a certain amount. These initial deposits are generally around $50 or the equivalent in British Pounds. The deposit or bet is often matched by the company, so you get double the money to gamble with. If you are crafty enough, you can get a free bet of £10 and a load of rpoints for free. You can actually end up making money plus giving yourself the chance of a big payout when you place a bet or play poker.

~Points and Redemption~

The points system on rpoints.com is very straightforward, unlike some other earning sites that you may come across. It is made so simple, because each point is worth 1p. This way you are clear as to how much you have earned and how much you should expect to have when you cash out. Some other sites have rather confusing point structures and no clear value on what each individual point is worth. I think that this scale makes it so much easier to interpret your earnings and to plan how to spend them. It also allows you to weigh up whether taking up a particular offer is worth it or not, because you get a clear figure in your head of how much money you will be saving or actually earning.

The minimum cash out value is just 500 points, which is £5. This is the same as Ciao and I think that it is a very reasonable amount. There are other sites that force you to earn as much as £25 before allowing you to cash in and get a reward. You have a choice of four different redemption methods, which I feel cater for the vast majority of people. If you want to convert points into amazon.co.uk vouchers, then you can do so at 500 points a time. I find that I have the voucher code in my inbox within 24 hours, which is very impressive. Paypal is another option, one that I haven't used, but I'm sure that the procedure is pretty straightforward. Eggpay and Moneybookers are the other two methods, but you require 1500 and 3000 points respectively. I haven't had any experience with these either, but I can't see it being a problem to receive your money.

The points that you earn on the site, do take about a month or so to come through. The statements are updated on a weekly basis, usually on a Monday afternoon, and your new account status in calculated. The points that you have earned in the past week will appear as 'pending' on your list and there will be a date that indicates when they should be available for you to redeem. When the points are added to your balance, they will show up as 'awarded' on your statement and they will be highlighted in grey.

~Forums~

The rpoints.com bulletin board is always very lively and active. It is extremely helpful for any user, because it is crammed full with important information and advice to getting the most out of the website. It is also the place to pose questions to the moderators and other members of the site, if you have a problem or query regarding missing points, unclear offers or any other difficulties that you may run into whilst using the website. There is also an announcements section that is always worth keeping an eye, to keep abreast of any changes that are taking place on rpoints.com.

The forum is also the place to post any offers that you have spotted on the internet that you wish to bring to the attention of other members. There are numerous categories which these fall into, freebies and mobile phones to name two. There can be some real bargains to be had here and if you are looking for something in particular you may just find something that fits the bill. The posts are often accompanied by a link to an online shop or store that stock the particular item. If you buy through that shop then you will earn yourself rebate.

There are also fun areas that you can talk about everyday events and have a laugh and a joke. The fun and games section is a good laugh, the story time thread is particularly good. There is useful advice to be had on financial and technology issues and you can generally ask a question on such matters and get a very good answer from someone. There is a lot of gambling associated material here and you can get a lot of very good advice on how to master online poker.

There is such a wealth of information to be viewed here and you can almost any question that you have answered by someone who knows what they are talking about. I think it is really handy to have access to and it has helped me to boost my points balance immensely. I haven't really any real criticisms of the forums and how they work, only praise.

~Customer Service~

The rpoints.com team do everything they can to respond to your questions and queries as fast as possible. If you post a problem that you have, they will often come up with some sort of answer for you within a few hours. If none of the moderators are around, the more senior members of the site will often give you a pretty solid answer. I think that in this sense, rpoints are second to none. They will always give you a speedy answer, even if it isn't the one you are looking for.

~Conclusion~

In my opinion, this has to be one of the more lucrative and efficient ways of earning a little extra money online. If you know what you are doing and know how to maximise your earnings then you will earn yourself a tidy little sum. As I keep mentioning, there are so many ways that you can earn yourself points that you continue to do so with relative ease. There are always new ways of earning being added and new shops offering rebate, so if you do find that you exhaust the sites immense possibilities then your next earner may be just around the corner.

I can't recommend this site highly enough. I have only earned a total of £20 in the few months that I have been a member, but they have all been free points. The only times that I have actually paid out money, is when ordering pizza from dominos.co.uk via my account. I think that anybody who is dedicated enough and does any amount of shopping online, will soon reap the benefits of being a member of rpoints.com. This site, like anything in the world will take a bit of getting used to, but once you are rocking and rolling there should be no stopping you on your charge to earn as many rpoints as possible.