New Year Update from Illumination Team
Newsletter summarising 2021 and setting goals for 2022
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year. We apologize for the delay in our December newsletter. We had a very hectic month as most of our editors were on vacation. Thank you for your excellent support in 2021. We had a productive year publishing thousands of stories for our readers. Many writers joined ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications. Now, more than 13,000 writers contribute to our publications. In December, we introduced our editors so that writers could connect with them better. Here are the profiles we created last month.
We will add more editor profiles when some editors get back from vacation to be found in this collection by ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Collection of Editor Bios: Meet Editors of Illumination Integrated Publications
Writer Introductions
We have started featuring our writers. For example, we featured one of our published authors contributing to Illumination Book Chapters on YouTube. Meet Shashi Sastry: Author of the book “Philosophy of Life Instinct”. Another writer profile in this story: Fresh Perspectives to Mindfulness and Spirituality: Reflecting ideas from a top writer. We introduced top writer Sinem Gunel in this story: Meet Sinem Gunel. We also introduced another writer and editor on YouTube. Meet Dr Preeti Singh on YouTube: Senior editor of Illumination Integrated Publications on Medium.
YouTube Initiative for 2022
It is our 2022 business goal to raise profiles of our writers leveraging the power of the Illumination YouTube Channel. So please subscribe channel to remain connected with our new videos.
A community member with a media, design, and filmmaking background volunteered to coordinate our YouTube channel. He has joined Medium and our Slack workspace offering free service to our writers. His name is Aidan, and he can be contacted on our Slack workspace. His handle on Slack and Medium is Illumination YouTube Coordinator.
Aidan is keen to help writers. First, he posted an article introducing himself. My First Article on Medium: This is my first day on this platform, and I am excited. Today, he posted a second article showing his gratitude to Medium writers, readers, and editors titled Appreciation and Gratitude for Warm Welcomes.
Aidan created several introductory videos. We introduced the videos embedded in the following posts.
Illumination on YouTube: A video introduction to Illumination Integrated Publications on Medium
How Writers Can Use YouTube Creatively and Productively
Improving the Quality of Writing Using an Editorial Checklist: Video presentation of Illumination’s editorial checklist
Photo Handling Policy Update
We updated our image copyrights, adding clarity to the fair use issue. This is one of the most problematic issues in our publications. Our goal is to protect our writers from breaching copyright rules. Here is the post for more information: Why Image Copyrights Matter for Writers and Editors: Update to handling story photos policy for Illumination Integrated Publications on Medium.
Redesign of Illumination Front Page
Another highlight of December was to redesign the ILLUMINATION front page based on feedback from valued readers and writers. We removed publication-related articles and transferred them to the ILLUMINATION Blog pub, where writers can find guiding stories. This new design allows readers to find fresh content on the front page more accessible and faster daily.
We also created several featured pages for readers to supplement findability and visibility. Featured pages show your stories to more readers interested in these topics. We will redesign all other pages soon. Here are the links to our new featured pages.
https://medium.com/illumination/business/home
https://medium.com/illumination/love/home
Invitation to Volunteer Editors
Currently, some of our volunteer editors are unwell. This situation affected our publishing performance adversely. Nevertheless, available editors are working harder to meet our 24-hour delivery plan. I appreciate their dedication and support to our writers and readers.
If you have time and are interested in supporting our publications as an editor, you may contact me on our Slack workspace. Our Slack group is open to all our contributors. We have more than 10,000 members.
If you don’t have access to Slack or haven’t received my previous invitations, you can request via this online webform.This article summarizes the eligibility criteria to serve as an editor for our publications are outlined in this article.
Progress of Writers
We are glad that several new writers gained over 100 followers and became eligible for Medium Partner Program (MPP). If you are a new writer and want to increase your followers and readers, you may check these guiding articles to help you.
8 Proven Tips to Build a Rock-Solid Reading Audience
6 Easy & Proven Tips to Increase Followers
How To Become A Top Writer In Three Months
Subscribers Can Produce 50 Times Better Results Than Followers for Freelance Writers
We are pleased that several writers completed writing challenges. 100 Day Writing Challenge is the most desired one among writers. Some attempted to 1000 short forms in 100 days too. We provided an update on this in a previous newsletter. Updates on Achievements of New Writers for 100-Day Writing Challenge
Participating in these writing challenges for new MPP contributors can be valuable for their progress. Please remember to share your story links, your concerns, and your aspirations in this unique challenge. And many readers enjoyed the Challenge called “The Proust Questionnaire”. These challenges might bring my readers to your stories.
We look forward to reading your stories about these challenges.
Updates on Stats
Even though some writers mentioned a decline in stats on various Medium stories, we did not notice it in our publications. In contrast, last few months, reading times substantially increased in our publications. For example, reading times did not drop under 50,000 minutes of average reading time per day. Several stories went viral.
We are pleased that articles on ILLUMINATION received more than 6.2 million minutes of reading within the last 90 days. Reading time is the golden standard and means income for writers. They also show the dedication and support of our discerning readers.
We are proud of our contributors, offering a wide variety of interesting, engaging, and informative stories daily. As a result, ILLUMINATION is shining for readers better than before. Thank you for your contributions.
Stories for our second largest publication, ILLUMINATION-Curated, received over a million minutes of reading times within the last 90 days. In addition, a few stories went viral. We only publish stories of experienced writers on this publication. You can find more info about this special pub if you are interested in joining it.
Our third most significant publication Technology Hits performed even better in the last two months. Several tech stories gained unprecedented visibility and brought many new readers interested in technology content. All other publications are growing rapidly. Several new published authors joined ILLUMINATION Book Chapters and started publishing chapters of their great books. Here is a link to some sample chapters.
Our newest publication, Readers Hope, which we introduced in November serving aspiring writers, received tremendous interest from writers and readers. We created compelling values to encourage readers to participate in the writing process by sharing stories with small steps, nurturing guidance from editors, and strong encouragement from the reading community.
Readers Hope is a special publication designed for aspiring writers who are interested in becoming experienced authors. The audience for this publication is avid readers who want to become writers. The publication has a clear roadmap with the operating power of a supportive team of volunteer editors. Here is the vision and mission of “Readers Hope”, explaining how to transform avid readers into prolific writers using a supportive and innovative publishing tool.
We know that raw content might not be for everyone, as it is frowned upon by elite writers. However, this publication brings tremendous value for new writers who require finding their voices with support. Readers Hope is an entry publication to give voice to all beginners. We do not mandate style rules for this pub. Instead, we recommend starting with small pieces using raw content and improving gradually. We only request our contributors to adhere to platform policies refraining from harmful materials such as defamation and hate speech. Of course, we don’t tolerate plagiarism.
As we know, no one was born a writer. However, anyone with little time, effort, dedication, and support can be a blogger, storyteller, writer, and eventually, a published author. Thus, with small steps, contributors can start their writing journey.
About Featured Collections
Our editors regularly feature interesting, informative, and engaging stories. We created a meta file including all featured stories by editors. You can access the repository in this story titled: Meta Collection of Featured Stories Easy access to daily selected stories from engaging writers of ILLUMINATION — Volume 3–2022.
This meta collection also includes Stories Chosen by Editors: Why ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications Feature Stories. Here are the latest curated collections by ILLUMINATION Curated Collection #1, Curated Collection #2, Curated Collection #3, Curated Collection #4, Curated Collection #5, Curated Collection #6, Curated Collection #7, Curated Collection #8, Curated Collection #9, a collection from SYNERGY, Curated Collection #10, Curated Collection #11, Curated Collection #12, Curated Collection #13, Curated Collection #14.
In addition, to provide curated content, we created multiple collections including topics such as:
The Power of Freelancing for Writers
Do You Want to Become A Sexy Entrepreneur?
The World Needs Passionate & Compassionate Leaders
Education and Learning From Many Aspects
Business Collection: A Mini MBA Bundle
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
Sample Book Chapters: Discover 70+ published authors on ILLUMINATION Book Chapters
Useful Resources for New Writers
We created a collection including relevant articles to guide our writers. Please check and bookmark this article for writer guidance and publication related stories. Starter Kit for Writers of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
One-stop-shop for beginners
The latest on-boarding packs for new writers
We create onboarding packs weekly for new writers.
Attached is the latest copy for writers joined our publications last week. These packs are valuable to guide new writers and connect with them easily.
Writing Viral Stories
To guide our writers, I compiled a post with key items for creating viral stories based on my experience, observations, and reviews of over 100 viral stories in 2021. I hope some of your stories go viral in 2022.
What I Learned by Reviewing 100+ Viral Articles in 2021
I introduce distinctive patterns of viral content gaining mass attraction, increasing your chance in 2022.medium.com
Invitation to Create Personal Publications
I helped many writers to create their own publications. As a result, they made significant progress in gaining loyal readers. In addition to Illumination Integrated publications, I started my own publications to host my personal stories and manage my own publication called Euphoria. If you need help establishing your own publication, please contact me Slack workspace. I will be delighted to help.
Joining Vocal Media Writing Contests
We regularly keep our writers up to date with new writing challenges introduced by Vocal Media. If you are not a writer with Vocal Media yet, you can join at this link. In addition, repurposing your Medium articles on Vocal may bring additional income to freelance writers. Our latest post introduces a recent writing contest by Vocal Media: Why & How to Join Three Writing Competitions on Vocal.
Invitation to Potential Writers
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 point out 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 monetise self-published content.
Conclusion
Thank you for your support and contributions in 2021. I wish you a happy, healthy, and successful New Year.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz on behalf of editorial team of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium.
Please feel free to contact me when you need help on on Slack.
Wow! I have bookmarked this newsletter for future reference -- thanks for the resources on writing and for success on Medium! Proud to be a part of the Illumination group of publications!