Let me be direct right from the start: I want this kid to grow up and become something amazing.

The Scoop

• Simily.co is a relatively new publishing platform, highly similar to Medium — but hopefully, it will shed some of Medium’s ugly features.
• It’s geared toward fiction but it also welcomes nonfiction writers.
• Simily made quite a splash in the writing community because, unlike the majority of the other publishing platforms, it’s willing to pay per unique views, regardless of whether they come from subscribers or external visitors.
• Simily will pay authors $0.02 for every unique view their stories receive per month.
• This is the beta phase of the project. Later on, they intend to move toward a revenue-sharing model similar to what’s happening on Medium right now.

Why I Think Simily Can Succeed

• The platform has that old-school writing community feel to it, it’s cozy, it makes you write. It’s designed in a way that allows you to separate yourself from whatever is happening in your life at the moment and dive into the literary realm.
• Many independent writers no longer resonate with the overcrowded bigger platforms.
• It can find its own place in the online environment if it becomes a fiction-only, or at least fiction-mainly space.
• The creators seem to have placed the authors at the heart of the community — there are groups where writers can discuss and collaborate, and the initial payment strategy seems to show a certain respect for a person’s work. Many other platforms lack that and treat writers as disposable.
• It can be a real chance for new writers. Since Simily is at the beginning of its own journey, it may help others promote themselves and their work better. Smaller audience, lower competition, better chances to be seen.

Why I Think Simily May Fail

• Many of the initial writers went there for the financial aspect of it. If Simily won’t satisfy those expectations sooner rather than later, for at least a good portion of the initial authors who trusted the platform, the word on the street will be “Wah-wah, nothing to write home about. How I made $0.26 on Simily in my first 6 months. I’m still looking at them in the dashboard because they have a $10 payment threshold so I’ll close my account now and kiss them goodbye.”
• $0.02 per unique view may sound OK but when you look at it from a practical POV, you realize that to make $20, one would need 1000 unique views. When I am writing this post, there are 1851 members on Simily. That’s everyone, not just paying members. I assume most of the active members are writers themselves and did not purchase a membership. So, not much happening internally on Simily right now. Almost impossible to make even those $20 from random, internal views.
• Outside of Simily, we encounter another issue. It doesn’t freaking rank on Google. You can’t find the thing. It’s new, yes, but not that new. I’m too lazy and unmotivated to go and check the domain history — and it may not even be that relevant — but the Twitter account was created in June, 2021. So, 6 months is enough to start populating Google search results. Not really happening. It may go boom, but there’s no way to tell.
• The biggest threat though, in my opinion, is Simily becoming and staying a cheap Medium knock-off. Same stuff, smaller scale. I think the chances of that happening are higher because of them accepting all nonfiction stuff. If you have fiction right next to “3 Stupid Ways to Make $3 This Month”, it’s a fail. It’s the thing that’s slowly killing Medium and will definitely kill any smaller online fish as well.

So… what now?

I’ll stick around and see what happens.

I have a Simily account — I use a pen name to separate nonfiction from fiction, so I won’t link it here [not neuroscience to figure it out though]— , it’s a few days old. I posted two stories so far, have gained some followers and a few cents, with absolutely no promotion. I’m there for the experience and so far, I like it.

Another cool perk was the fact that being one of the first on the platform I got to create a simple username, because pretty much every option is on the table at this stage.

I really hope it succeeds. A clean, fiction-oriented platform that’s open for all is what the world needs right now.

Maybe we can make it happen.

Cheers, Simily! Be a great one.

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This article was originally published on an external platform on January 16, 2022.