In my opinion, the simplest of the money earning sites is Inbox Pounds.  It's a reputable company which I'm told is "Inbox Dollars" in the USA and elsewhere. 

Very, very simply - it's a site which you can use instead of Google or Bing but they pay you for using their site. You earn 1p for every 2 original searches up to the value of 15p per day. You also receive a loyalty bonus of 10p each week for using the search engine a few times.

I also recommend clicking the 'Paid Emails' (1p for 1 click) and the videos section which pay between 1p-8p per video.

You can also earn a little extra from various special offers and surveys, but the surveys don't pay particularly well.

I've cashed out a few times - they pay by cheque when you reach £20. The cheque arrives quickly. Reaching that £20 isn't so quick but the site requires little to no effort.

REGISTER HERE

Earning money online comes with a stigma attached that it's all scams and pyramid schemes. There are many good and reputable sites available too though.

I have personally been caught out twice. A site called Can't Beat Free disappeared leaving people owed money and gift cards. Another site called Rewarding Ways waits til people reach payout level and accuses them of having several accounts or using a proxy IP address. 

Sites I can verify that pay out:

Swagbucks

Gifthulk

Zoombucks

Irazoo

Global test market

Onepoll

Neobux

Clixsense

Inbox Pounds

Opinion Outpost

Pinecone

Panelbase

Roamler