October Updates from ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
Monthly newsletters for contributing writers and readers
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your excellent support in October. We had a productive month publishing thousands of stories for our readers. Many more writers joined ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications. Now, more than 12,000 writers contribute to our publications.
We redesigned the ILLUMINATION front page based on feedback from our 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.
To supplement findability and visibility, we also created a few featured pages for our readers. We only created four featured pages so far, but we will be adding more soon, covering many topics. Featured pages show your stories to more readers interested in these topics.
Here are the links to our new featured pages.
Featured Pages for Business
https://medium.com/illumination/business/home
Featured Pages for Love and Relationships
https://medium.com/illumination/love/home
Featured Pages for Self-Improvement
https://medium.com/illumination/self-improvement/home
Featured Pages for Sprirituality
We will re-design all other pages soon.
Currently, some of our volunteer editors are unwell. This unfortunate situation affected our publishing performance adversely. However, available editors are working harder than before to meet our 24 hour delivery plan. We are grateful for 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 over 9,500 members. If you don’t have access to Slack or haven’t received my previous invitations you can send a request via this online webform.
Eligibility criteria to serve as an editor for our publications are summarized in this article.
Progress of Writers
We are pleased 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 stories 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 40,000 minutes of average reading time per day during October. Several stories went viral. Here is the graph taken from our dashboard today.
We are pleased that articles on ILLUMINATION received more than 4.1 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. 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 to join it.
Our third most significant publication Technology Hits performed even better in the last two months. Several tech stories gained remarkable visibility and brought many new readers who are interested in technology content.
Even our specialised pub for freelance writers made good progress, including a few viral stories last month.
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, that I introduced last month 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.
You can find more information about Readers Hope in the following stories penned by our editors.
Welcome New Writers to Readers Hope: A place to experiment and try new things by Carol Price
Word after Word ’til You Simply Must Come up for Air: If you love to read, a writer waits within you by Regi Brittain
Good Stories to Take You Around the World: Welcome to Readers Hope by John Cunningham
From The Editor’s Desk: A Warm Welcome To All New Writers At Readers Hope: Readers hope and we fulfill their dreams by publishing their articles by Dr. Preeti Singh
Let Me Introduce Myself: I write and I am an Editor for Illumination by Lawson Wallace
How to Increase Your Writing Income: Guide for writers of “Readers Hope”, a new initiative cross-pollinating writers and readers by ILLUMINATION
Just Be Yourself When You Write — We’ve All Been There: Simple tips on how to get you started with Reader’s Hope on Medium by JS Adam
Writing Is Fun To Do — Everyone Can Learn To Write: Newbie-writers and readers-wannabe-writers are the most precious to have here in this community by Agnes Laurens
Letter to a Wannabe Writer: I invite you to join our welcoming writing community. by Tree Langdon
The Future of Reading is in Writing: We are readers until we decide to cross the line and become a writer. That transition is a difficult one by Aldric Chen
Guidance to contributing writers of Readers Hope
Start small, make the commitment, and grow gradually
Use raw content from various topics that you enjoy the most
Write about issues you need to express with no style concern
Connect with like-minded readers and writers with meaningful engagement
Increase your chance of findability and readability with social engagements
Consider making your writing practice your hobby and business
Useful Resources for New Writers
8 Proven Tips to Build a Rock-Solid Reading Audience: A game-changing strategy for freelance writers to turn loyal readers into advocates for sustainable business outcomes
The Beginner’s Guide to Write Viral Articles & Blogs: Learn 17 proven techniques and unique metrics
How To Triple Your Writing Income Methodically
How To Make Six-Figure Income On Medium
How To Earn Good Money On Medium
Subscribers Can Produce 50 Times Better Results Than Followers for Freelance Writers: How I gained 100K subscribers in a decade. 12 powerful strategies, tactics, and techniques to create a solid mailing lists
Publication Conduct Guidelines: Rules of engagement and cross-pollination at three levels
Conduct Guidelines for ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications: Rules of engagement, success roadmap, and cross-pollination at four levels
No Defamation, Discrimination, And Hate Speech Published: Publishing policy and inclusion guidance for ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
Process and Procedures: Anything you want to know about ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
Copyright Matters: Zero tolerance to plagiarism on ILLUMINATION
Use Of Affiliate Links On Medium: Guidance to writers who need to use affiliate links in stories
How to Survive and Thrive on Medium: Essential guide to new writers
A Practical Guide for Writers: My collection for writing and writer performance on Medium
Essential Checklist for Writers: Improve quality and readability of your stories
Handling Story Photos: Publication Policy
Five Questions To Increase Curation Chance and Reading Fans: Critical questions serving as a self-editing checklist for writers
How To Become A Top Writer In Three Months
100 Day Challenge For New Writers: How to grow and become a top writer on Medium in three months
1,000 Short Posts in 100 Days: How experienced writers can create more visibility on Medium taking this writing challenge
Invitation To A Writing Challenge: Share your concerns and aspirations in a story
How To Create A 30,000 Words E-book In A Month: Practical steps to produce a manuscript with 1,000-word a day
Storybooks and Indexing Publications: They work. Here is the evidence.
Introduce Your Newsletters and Grow Your Mailing Lists: Let’s collaborate to enhance our networks, gain new customers, and delight them sustainably
How to Turn Cold Calls to Warm Outcomes: Create meaningful and sustainable connections and grow with courage, growth mindset, and serendipity
WRITERS INVITED TO PROMOTE THEIR PUBLICATIONS: A give back and collaboration initiative of ILLUMINATION to support visibility of writers.
Yes, We Accept Short-Form Stories: Answering questions from hundreds of writers about new short-form story format on Medium
Short-Form Stories Not For Income But For Visibility. Think Of Them As A Tripwire
ILLUMINATION Fiction Club: An invitation to fiction writers to unite and collaborate for productive fun
ILLUMINATION Poetry Club: An invitation to poets to collaborate for productive fun
Welcome To The TSEE Club: A virtual club for writers, leaders, and professionals in technology, science, engineering, and entrepreneurship
Mentoring on ILLUMINATION: Peer support is essential for success.
What I Learned After Publishing 1,010 And Reading 100,000 Stories on Medium: Intangible benefits exceeded tangible ones
An Introduction to ILLUMINATION Slack Workspace
This Is My Simple Formula To Creating Viral Stories: Increase Chance Of Your Stories Get Viral In 7 Simple Steps
How to Create Viral Stories on Medium
Can you make $10,000 on Medium in a month?
Yes, it is possible but you must have a clear strategy, persistence, and effort.Writers Invited to Promote Their Publications
A give back and collaboration initiative of ILLUMINATION to support visibility of writersI’m a Writer/Editor: Why the Heck I Built An Affiliate Marketing Business After the Age of 60: The importance and value of affiliate marketing for content developers and freelance writers
Purpose of Synergy
And how to publish your stories in this publicationSYNERGY on Medium
Upon reader request, we renamed Passive Income for Writers publicationInviting Storytellers From All Aspects of Technology
Introduction to Technology Hits
Scope, overview, and participation methodsILLUMINATION Book Chapters: A publication giving voice to published authors on Medium
Learn About ILLUMINATION-Curated
Essential articles about ILLUMINATION-Curated publicationInvitation to Write for “ILLUMINATION-Curated”
A bespoke publication for advanced writers and readersHow to Benefit of ILLUMINATION-Curated
A comprehensive guide for contributors of ILLUMINATION-CuratedParadigm Shift in Content Curation, Distribution, and Marketing
Introduction to ILLUMINATION-Curated
The purpose and progress of a new publication using the power of ILLUMINATIONWhy Should Top Writers Join “ILLUMINATION-Curated”: An innovative publication for top writers and advanced readers
Yes, You Can Now Directly Write For ILLUMINATION-Curated: However, your stories must meet Medium curation guidelines
How to Create Collections on ILLUMINATION-Curated: A sample and guiding framework to encourage writers to create their collections
Self-nominated Curation: Not Just Top For Writers: An opportunity for ILLUMINATION writers to showcase their best stories on special collection of ILLUMINATION-Curated
Collection of Featured Stories: Easy access to daily selected stories from engaging writers of ILLUMINATION
Stories on ILLUMINATION-Curated — All Volumes: Easy access to curated and outstanding stories
Technology, Business, Leadership, & Self-Improvement Stories: Curated collections for discerning readers
Reading List #3 — Technology Hits: Selected stories for enjoyment of tech readers
Sample Book Chapters: Discover 70+ published authors on ILLUMINATION Book Chapters
Top 100 Trending Stories: at ILLUMINATION-Curated
Testimonials for ILLUMINATION: Thoughts and sentiments of ILLUMINATION writers.
Topic Collections
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
Editors’ Choices
We compiled editors’ choices in a single link. We offer a unique curation and visibility service for storytellers on Medium.
Stories Chosen by Editors: Why ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications Feature Stories
Please enjoy October’s featured stories curated by our senior and caring editor Dew Langrial. . You can contact Dew on our Slack workspace to nominate your high quality stories. She enjoys supporting and mentoring new writers.
The latest on-boarding packs for new writers.
https://medium.com/illumination/onboarding-new-writers-5921e181493a
https://medium.com/illumination/onbording-new-writers-16c272d1deee
Invitation to Prospective Contributors
To join our vibrant publications, please send a request via this link. We will help you succeed on Medium. Please point out the publication name with your Medium account ID in the request.
Thank you for your support and contributions.
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.