What is Simily?

I first heard about Simily from a user on Medium, and decided to give it a try for myself.

Simily is a new writing site that hopes to cater to the market that Vocal Media and Medium have ignored but Wattpad has enjoyed for some time: quality fiction content and paying writers for the privilege.

That’s right: writers have the opportunity to earn money on their content — $0.02 for every view.

I received a free trial for one month and began publishing on a once-a-week basis.

I used repurposed content — primarily chapters of my experimental short story “Elite & Tawdry” which I’ve been updating on a semi-regular basis on my Wattpad account.

Here are my findings:

Pros of Simily

Accessible Layout

I have nothing but praise for the layout of Simily. The site boasts a clean, minimalist look that makes it attractive and simple to use.

User-Friendly Formatting

Simily also has some notable advantages over Vocal Media. For one, their formatting system is user-friendly and formatting is retained when text is copy-pasted.

Ease of Publication

Content is posted immediately, which is in stark contrast to Vocal Media’s slow and cumbersome process of taking several days to review every single submission.

Reader Engagement (Community Boards)

Something that is missing from all the big platforms — that is, Medium, Vocal Media, and Wattpad — is the inclusion of a community boards. This allows for interaction and engagement with other writers.

Cons of Simily

Site Issues

When I first attempted to use Simily, the site was continually crashing. The founders of the site explained this was due to some less scrupulous members attempting to game the system by using bots to increase traffic to their content (payment is directly dependent upon views, $0.02 per visit).

(Update: I’m happy to report that this issue has been resolved and since December I have had no issues with accessing the site.)

(Another Update as of 2022/01/18: Uh…never mind. Problems are still occurring on the Simily website.)

Poor Organic Reach

Unfortunately, Simily seems to have the same issues as Vocal Media in that its reach is exceptionally poor. Since writing on the site, I’ve only earned a little over $1.00 through reads, and the minimum amount for payout is $10.

I’ll chalk this up to the infancy of Simily, which had only just recently reached 1000 users. I’m hoping traffic to the site improves as the site grows.

Suggestions for Improvements

Change the Name

Whenever I search for Simily, Google has the annoying tendency to autocorrect to ‘Simile’.

I highly suggest they consider rebranding the platform with a different name. The site is still young, so I think it would decrease the amount of confusion if they did it now.

Offer a Better Incentive to Purchase Membership

Simily offers a free and a paid membership. Right now, I don’t see much use in paying $6.99 a month for the added benefits.

I write on the site, but I don’t read much of the content, so there’s no incentive for me to pay for the opportunity to read unlimited stories or to follow other writers.

Lower Payment Threshold

At the time of writing this, a person must earn at least $10 to redeem payment. I think Simily should abolish the payment threshold entirely (especially for paying members) and pay out on a monthly basis.

These are just a few of my observations. Simily shows great promise, and while I won’t pursue a paid membership, I will continue to write for the site to see if I can reach the threshold.