Monthly Updates from ILLUMINATION Editorial Team: November 2023
Helpful information summarizing achievements and plans for writers and readers
You also can read this newsletter on Medium. Our publications are diverse and inclusive. New applications to join our publications are via the writer registration portal. Please add your Medium ID or a link to one of your stories. Details are on our master onboarding pack.
Dear Writers and Readers,
Happy December! November was a very busy month for our editors and administrators to make many writers and readers happy. Our network further grew with the addition of 581 new writers. Now, 25,091 registered writers contribute to Illumination Integrated Publications. Our loyal readers always appreciate fresh voices, so we introduce new writers when they join us through welcome packs like this.
Our writers range from beginners to experts, around 10% beginners, 20% advanced, and 70% in between. We support absolute beginners via Readers Hope, most experience via ILLUMINATION-Curated, and the large group in ILLUMINATION and our specialized pubs. We have a good structure as every level of writers is important. You can learn the details in each updated guideline below.
Updated Submission Guidelines
ILLUMINATION-Curated: New Submission Guidelines 2023
SYNERGY: Submission Guidelines 2023
Technology Hits: Submission Guidelines 2023
ILLUMINATION Book Chapters: Submission Guidelines 2023
Readers Hope: New Submission Guidelines 2023
Submission Guidelines: Illumination Integrated Publications
ILLUMINATION Gaming: Submission Guidelines 2023
ILLUMINATION Videos and Podcasts: Submission Guidelines 2023
Publishing and Conduct Guidelines for the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION
We also have a new publication called ILLUMINATION’s Nutrition, established by our editor, Surekha Chandrasekhar, who created initial guidelines. Our curators compiled relevant stories from ILLUMINATION, which can be transferred to this publication.
Nutrition: Curated Stories — Volume 1
Featuring well-crafted stories that can be amplified in our new publication, ILLUMINATION’s Nutrition
To ensure your content is published promptly, we kindly ask for your patience and request that you submit high-quality content and copyright-free images. We cannot stress enough how crucial quality is.
Boost Nominations
As of the first of October, our special publication, ILLUMINATION-Curated, was selected as a boost nominating pub. Several well-crafted stories were chosen for boost. We will compile them in another bulletin soon.
To inform our writers, we interviewed our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz, on our boost nomination approach. We hope the script of this interview can guide you.
How ILLUMINATION Publications Support the BOOST Program
An interview with Dr Mehmet Yildiz to understand the process and gain insights to increase the chance of boosting on…
You may check a comprehensive checklist to increase the chance of boosting provided by Dr Yildiz earlier. This checklist will be helpful for new writers to enhance the quality of their stories.
Dr. Yildiz has also published an article addressing the most commonly asked question about increasing income from writing on Medium and other platforms.
Congratulations ILLUMINATION Gaming, as being a new boost-nominating publication.
Today, our editor Aiden (Illumination Gaming) informed us that ILLUMINATION Gaming was chosen as a boost-nominating publication. Let’s congratulate Aiden, who supported us in creating these collections and associated daily lists. Writers interested in gaming and computer games might love this inspiring story.
ILLUMINATION Gaming Is Part of the Boost Program Now
Practical guidance to gamers to increase the chance of boosting on Medium as your new boost nominator
New Collection of Boosted Stories
ILLUMINATION-Curators compiled boosted stories in December so you might find some fascinating stories from this collection for readers. They may also guide our new writers to craft similar stories.
Collection of Boosted Stories from ILLUMINATION-Curated
And good news for ILLUMINATION-Gaming being a new boost-nominating publicationmedium.com
Medium Friendship Upgrade
We are also excited that our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz upgraded our publication accounts ILLUMINATION and ILLUMINATION-Curators, as well as his tech account Dr Mehmet Yildiz (Tech), making them Friends of Medium. Reading from these accounts will allow writers to earn four times more. While curating stories, we read many stories from these accounts, so it will be great for writers. Details are in his story.
Why I Became a Friend of Medium Dr Mehmet Yildiz (Tech)
Why I Became a Friend of Medium
Giving back to the platform, which offers us many tangible and intangible benefits for writers and readers, is…
We recently came across something that caught our attention, identified by our publication administrators. Out of the 25,000+ writers supported by my publications on Medium, over 8,000 are currently non-members. We dearly support them as a diverse and inclusive community.
As Dr Yildiz points out, “let’s take a moment to imagine something extraordinary. If these 8,000 writers chose to support the platform by investing just $5 a month, it could significantly boost our collective earnings. This could contribute around $480,000 annually to the pool, a sum that would substantially benefit all writers. Medium Friendship payments will be a bonus to increase writers’ income.”
New Curation Service to Increase Visibility
Out of 145 volunteer editors, a team of 57 volunteer curators developed this new service idea to address the visibility of stories. Each nominates a few stories from their reading list daily, and our lead ILLUMINATION-Curators compile them into collections like this one for our readers. But we can only add a limited number of stories to keep these posts in a reasonable size.
Our lead curators include them in lists, a great Medium feature. When you see your stories in lists, you may save them, share them on social media, link to them, comment on them, and like the list for increased visibility. The entire curation process takes up substantial time, so we will appreciate your support as your time allows.
The curation team compiled and posted 20 collection. Here are the links for interested readers.
Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, Volume 9, Volume 10, Volume 11, Volume 12, Volume 13, Volume 14, Volume 15, Volume 16, Volume 17, Volume 18, Volume 19, Volume 20
Several editors, including our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz, also created a list of the stories they read from our publication. We will compile lists in these collections. Here are sample curated pieces created by Dr. Yildiz recently from his tech account Dr Mehmet Yildiz (Tech)
Building a Synergistic Tech, Business, and Leadership Community — Part III
Building a Synergistic Tech Community — Part II
Extended Benefits to Write for Technology Hits Publication with New Leadership Commitment
Curated Collections by Mike Broadly, DHSc
Mike joined the curation team today and created three new collections from his favorite stories that you may adore. He has an amazing taste as an avid reader.
Mike’s Favorite Stories on ILLUMINATION Publications — #1
Mike’s Favorite Stories on ILLUMINATION Publications — #2
Mike’s Favorite Stories on ILLUMINATION Publications — #3
Please note that these stories are nominated by volunteering editors (also writers and readers) on this platform, so the stories in this collection reflect their collective taste. As a publication, ILLUMINATION keeps a neutral position for all published stories, and it is impossible to feature over one million published stories. But we will do our best to amplify as many great stories as possible almost daily from now on based on the availability of our volunteers.
New Communication and Collaboration Platform
As some writers cannot join Slack due to limitations, our editor and media coordinator, Aiden (Illumination Gaming), volunteered to set up a new Discord service as an alternative to our main Slack workspace. All registered writers are welcome to join this new platform. Aiden posted an article about it explaining the rules and the way to join it.
Communicate and Collaborate with Writers on the Illumination Discord Server
Welcome to our new workspace in addition to Slack for those who need another cool toolmedium.com
Update on ILLUMINATION Stats
All stats improved this month except the alleged earnings of writers. Here are our 90-day stats covering reading times, visitors, and views.
Reading times
Reading times increased from 5.5 to 5.8 million minutes.
Views
Views also increased from 5.1 to 5.4 million.
The average of unique daily visitors
The average of unique visitors increased from 44K to 46K.
Followers
We are pleased to see 833 new followers joined since last month.
Slack Members
We gained an extra 428 members to our Slack workspace.
Writer Registration
Since last month, around 581 new writers have registered in our portal.
Volunteer Editors
Now, we have 144 volunteer publishing and consulting editors. We lost one volunteer due to sickness.
We will provide stats and updates on ILLUMINATION-Curated in another newsletter, as this publication is now growing rapidly like ILLUMINATION.
As we grow, quality and meaningful engagement are the most important factors for making our stories visible. Here are some key points to remember:
We prioritize well-written articles free of language errors or image issues. Stories with errors may take longer to be published.
To give every writer a fair chance, we accept only one story per writer within 24 hours. However, you can submit additional stories to our smaller publications tailored to different audiences.
If your story does not fit the Illumination scope, editors might ask you to move it to a more suitable publication to ensure our readers receive the best content.
Writers who don’t follow our publication rules may experience delays in publishing while issues are resolved via private messages. Due to timezone differences, this process may take several days. To expedite publishing, please consider using our complimentary Slack workspace.
If you have questions or need assistance, you can contact our chief editor, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, in private on Slack, and he will direct your inquiries to the relevant editors. It’s important to note that Dr. Yildiz volunteers their time like all our editors. None of our publications or resources generate any revenue from writers.
Some Concerns About Income Lost
In late September, we received numerous inquiries from our writers expressing concern about a notable decrease in earnings despite consistent stats. While some speculate it might be a system glitch or a depletion of Medium’s funds, the exact cause was finally identified.
We heard that some writers were compensated delighting them. One of our editors Mike Broadly documented the issue regarding income loss, giving us valuable perspectives on the situation.
Here’s What Seems to Happen to Medium Last Week.
This is an update to my previous story, but I don’t write it in Aussie slang or humor anymore because Mr Algorithm does…
We acknowledge the concerns raised by many writers regarding this drop. However, we want to emphasize that while monetary aspects are significant, Medium offers writers a range of benefits beyond just income.
In response to the situation, our editorial team has posted a story guiding writers through these changes. We encourage you to read this story, where we transparently share our position as editors.
Medium Isn’t a Money-Making Machine, It Offers Better Benefits for Writers
It is a platform to find your voice, create serendipity, and reap intangible benefits strategically for long-term…
We need more volunteer editors.
Our editorial team sometimes gets exhausted. Therefore, we need more volunteer editors as our publications keep growing. Some editors go on vacation, some need a break, or sometimes they get unwell.
If you have time and are interested in supporting our smaller publications as an editor, you may contact our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz, on our Slack workspace. The eligibility criteria to serve as an editor for our publications are outlined in this article.
Our Slack group is open to all our contributors. We have around 19K+ members on Slack. If you don’t have access to Slack or haven’t received the previous invitation, you can request it via this online web form.
Editors play a vital role in our writers’ success and our readers’ satisfaction. They review your content, publish it on time, and promote published stories to our readers using various methods.
These volunteer editors are also writers. Therefore, they understand the needs of writers. Currently, 145 volunteer editors support our 24K+ writers using the Slack workspace. This is a massive workload for them.
We thought that meeting our editors could be valuable for writers. Therefore, we started an initiative to introduce our editors’ backgrounds and writing styles. We add new editor profiles as our time allows. They usually use the same account on Slack so that you can contact them directly.
Writer Bios in a Collection — Introduce Yourself
If you are a new writer, introducing yourself to the community can bring many benefits to you, as we explained before. Dr Yildiz has shared six compelling reasons why every writer should create a bio on Medium in 2020.
From the beginning, we’ve encouraged our writers to share personal bios in their stories. These bios have been curated and shared with our subscribers, allowing readers to get to know the writers better. However, as the number of bios grew, it became challenging to manage them all.
To address this, Aiden (Illumination Gaming) has reorganized these bios into a shorter and more manageable format. We understand that our readers are keen to learn about the writers they follow, so you can explore these updated bios in our new collection.
Meet ILLUMINATION Writers from Their Personally Penned Biographies
Learn about contributing writers of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium, written by their golden pens
If you are interested in earning some cash and increasing your email marketing skills, you may check an opportunity introduced by Aiden in step by step in a recent article. He also created a video about it with clear instructions.
Practical Guidance for Absolute Beginners
1 — How to submit your stories to publications
Now that you joined Medium and wrote your first story. Please follow these simple instructions. Once you do it a few times, it will be second nature. Not knowing this feature caused many new writers to wait for days.
When you draft your story, please click on the … (3 dots) on the top right side of your screen. Click on the add to publication, choose Illumination or other relevant pubs, and submit your story. When the story arrives in the publication queue, editors will review and publish it if your story qualifies. If not, they will leave a private message and return your story to fix, resubmit, or transfer to one of our other publications if it does not suit ILLUMINATION.
We no longer publish certain types of stories on ILLUMINATION and ILLUMINATION-Curated, so please review the new submission guidelines.
2 — Use Copyright-Free Images and Remember to Caption Them
A crucial issue is some new writers forget to add captions to photos and use copyrighted images. Violating copyright rules can lead to substantial penalties imposed by legal institutions.
Several writers got hefty fines; our editors don’t want this to happen to you. Therefore, our editors are diligently working to safeguard our writers. We kindly ask that you honor their requests, as they have your best interests at heart. You cannot use every image on stories behind the paywall.
If you are a new writer on Medium, please review the Photo Handling Policy before starting, as it is the most time-consuming issue for our editors and causes delays in publishing. Writers failing to meet our photo handling policy will be removed from publications.
Handling Story Photos
Publication Policy
3 — We don’t accept AI-generated content per Medium’s new strategy except for one dedicated publication [the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION]
Our publications do not accept content written by artificial intelligence tools, but we have a viable solution to make writers and readers happy.
Those writers who use generative AI tools like Jasper or ChatGPT can send their stories to our new publication, the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION. Details are attached.
AI-Generated Content Policy for ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
Essential Resources for New Writers
We compiled essential guides for new writers in a post titled Starter Kit for Writers of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications. This collection might be a one-stop shop for new writers to learn more about writing on this platform.
Please also review these guiding policies before submitting their stories. We are tolerant, but the following are non-negotiable rules and Medium’s content hosting and distribution policy.
Zero tolerance to plagiarism on ILLUMINATION
No Defamation, Discrimination, and Hate Speech Published
Why Image Copyrights Matter for Writers and Editors
Publishing and Conduct Guidelines for the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION
Helpful Resources for Beginners
You may find more helpful stories from the content management collection of Dr Mehmet Yildiz typically written to help new writers joining Medium.
Writing, Content Development & Marketing Strategy Guides
Writer Introductions, Featuring, and Interviews
We introduce writers by creating profiles or interviewing them to create visibility for their profiles and content. Recently, Dr. Yildiz interviewed several writers. You can read these exciting interviews from the attached links.
Interview with Dr. Melissa Kalt, MD
An Interview with Yogesh Haribhau Kulkarni (PhD)
An Interview with Author Raymond M.E. Aguirre
An Interview with Hakima TANTRIKA Hakima T A N T R I K A
We also started a new initiative titled “Make invisible stories visible “to increase our contributors’ views and read times. Here are some samples:
Meet Mark Sanford, Ph.D. Mark Sanford, Ph.D.
Meet Psychologist Cedric Johnson, Ph.D. on ILLUMINATION Cedric Johnson, PhD
Chosen Stories from Melinda Blau’s Unique Collection Melinda Blau
Chosen Stories from Sufyan Maan’s Collection Sufyan Maan, M.Eng
We introduced a few writers that you may explore their work from the introductions.
Writer Introduction
We introduced several writers recently. The most recent ones are Thomas Allen Moon , Omni Essence, Sneha Nagre, Sridhar Pai Tonse — Leadgen Coach- Tech Startups, Zondra Dos Anjos, Ani Vals, Ammara Hassan, Jozsef Kovacs, Davor Katusic, Dr Emmanuel Ogamdi, and Seda Anbarcı
You might also check recent editorial introductions from our team.
Editorial Bio of Ali Alzahrani, Editor
Editorial Bio of Karlene Joseph K. Joseph
Editorial Bio of Philip Writes
Editorial Profile of Kurt Dillon
Editorial Profile of Aiden (Illumination Gaming)
Editorial Profile of Joanie Adams
Editorial Profile of Nurma Komala-Hadi
Editorial Profile of The Sturg
Editorial Profile of Surekha Chandrasekhar
Editorial Profile of Fahaz Hameed
Editorial Profile of Mr. Jacob Morales
Editorial Profile of Abraham Bamidele
Chosen Stories from Collection of Brooklyn Muse (editor)
You can learn about our other editors’ backgrounds from this collection curated by ILLUMINATION-Curators.
We feature our writers’ profiles via the Illumination YouTube channel and blog the transcripts. For example, our volunteer YouTube coordinator Aiden (Illumination Gaming), features writers on our channel. Contact him on our Slack workspace if you want to be featured.
You might find some sample YouTube videos featuring our top writers in this collection titled Meet Top Writers of Medium on YouTube.
Curating and Amplifying Stories for More Visibility
Due to the hectic workload, our editors couldn’t create a new curated collection, but last month they did several. We link them here. We have changed our curation strategy. We now select nominated stories by our publication curators and compile them in shorter volumes.
Previously, we curated and distributed thousands of well-written pieces to our readers via blogs and social media. Our repository reached around a million published stories on Illumination and sister publications.
Hand-Picked Articles — 2023 #47: Chosen by the content curators of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium for avid readers
ILLUMINATION-Curators also started a new initiative called Reading Club. Here is the latest version.: ILLUMINATION Reading Club #7
ILLUMINATION Amplifiers started to feature book chapters submitted by our published author. Here is the latest version. Hand-Picked Book Chapters #02
Curated Video and Podcast Stories on Medium #3
Curated Stories from Illumination Gaming Publication #2
Last year, we posted 280 collections from the ILLUMINATION Amplifier account. The Illumination team published 138 collections, and ILLUMINATION-Curator posted around ten collections featuring outstanding stories from experienced writers.
The latest collection from ILLUMINATION: Curated Collection #188
Writing Challenges and Prompts
Several writers completed writing challenges. The 100-Day Writing Challenge is popular. A few writers attempted to 1000 short forms in 100 days, too. If you are into short forms, you can submit one to each publication. However, our focus is not on quantity but quality now.
You may consider sharing your story links, concerns, and aspirations in this unique challenge. And many readers enjoyed the Challenge called “The Proust Questionnaire.”
These challenges might bring new readers to your stories. We look forward to reading your stories about these challenges. We also feature those who complete challenges in our curated collections.
Publications Created by Our Writers
Dr. Yildiz helped several writers to create their publications and gain visibility. Publication owners made significant progress in getting loyal readers. Here is a guiding story: Compelling Benefits of Personal Publications on Medium.
ILLUMINATION collected the publications of our contributors in a post titled: Why Writers Need Personal Publications: Invitation to introduce your own publication to the audience of Illumination Integrated Publications.
Sample Topic Collections
We create collections selecting exciting stories from many writers who write on popular topics. Here are some examples compiled by our chief editor.
The Power of Freelancing for Writers
Business Collection: A Mini MBA Bundle
Do You Want to Become an Entrepreneur?
The World Needs Passionate & Compassionate Leaders
Education and Learning From Many Aspects
Featured Stories About “Writing” From The Top Writers of SYNERGY
NFT Story Collection on ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
How Storytellers Articulate Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain
Top Stories About Artificial Intelligence
Top AI Stories on Technology Hits
Collection of Featured Stories
Stories on ILLUMINATION-Curated — All Volumes
Technology, Business, Leadership, & Self-Improvement Stories
Reading List #3 — Technology Hits
Top 100 Trending Stories: at ILLUMINATION-Curated
Sample Book Chapters: Discover 70+ published authors on ILLUMINATION Book Chapters
Let’s Welcome New Writers Joining Us Recently
Thank you for joining our publications. Let’s explore the profiles and stories of these writers who joined our publications recently.
Last month, we started creating short onboarding packs, introducing new writers, and allowing the previous writers to explore their content to increase collaboration, improve the visibility of stories, and support the growth of new writers. You may access the welcome packs from the following links. We encourage collaboration and meaningful engagements. We will add these welcome packs to a collection soon.
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #25
Welcome and a quick acknowledgment of your acceptance to ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium
New Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #1
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #2
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #3
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #4
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #5
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #6
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #7
Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #8
Invitation to New Writers
Our doors are open to all ethical writers. You can join or leave anytime with no obligation. Our goal is to give you a platform to showcase your stories.
To join our vibrant publications, please send a request via this link.
We will help you gain visibility and succeed as a writer on Medium. Please mention the publication name with your Medium account ID in the request. If you are new to Medium, you can join via this link. Readers can read thousands of stories, and writers can monetize self-published content.
ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications include:
ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Technology Hits, SYNERGY, Readers Hope, Illumination on YouTube, Illumination Gaming, the Lampshade of Illumination, ILLUMINATION’s Blog, and the personal publication of our chief editor EUPHORIA.
Get an email whenever ILLUMINATION publishes.
medium.com
Remember, supporting your peers as writers is important for mutual growth. Collaboration and meaningful engagement are key success factors on writing platforms. Here’s some guidance to beginners.
How Peer-to-Peer Recognition Improves Writers’ Lives
Our chief editor, Dr Yildiz, wrote many stories guiding new writers. You may find some valuable stories from his writing collection.
Writing, Content Development & Marketing Strategy Guides
Edit descriptiondr-mehmet-yildiz.medium.com
Thank you for sharing this newsletter with other writers interested in joining our publications, Slack/Discord workspace for collaboration. Our publications are diverse and inclusive.
Thanks Aiden (Illumination Gaming) for helping us to format this post. You can subscribe Aiden’s substack at
He will guide writers to increase the chance of boosting for the ILLUMINATION Gaming pub which was chosen this month. | A guest post by
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Thank you for this update.