I joined Simily for the reason you stated--It's a way I can earn money before I make it into the Medium Partnership Program. I've been on it for a week and have earned 10 cents from posting four poems.

I'm posting poems because I have a good-sized collection of poems on AllPoetry and wanted to reprint them in a place where they can earn. I won't publish fiction on Simily because I want to sell my fiction professionally.

I agree with you about the Google search problem. It kept asking if I wanted information about similes. Very annoying.

I notice there is a tiny redirect lag when you access the site. Not annoying, but it does detract from the exxperience.

I will be interested to see how long they can maintain their payment rate and if enough people subscribe to keep it going.

For me, the real benefit is that I can earn money with my poetry. I never expected to do that until I could self-publish a poetry book.