A Special Welcome to New Writers on Christmas Day from the Chief Editor

Summary of key success factors on this platform based on years of reading, writing, editing, publishing, and curation experience

Non-members can read this story for free using our Medium Friendship link.

Dear new writers, today, since our regular admins are off celebrating Christmas, I stepped in to add you to our publications. It was a bit of a long haul, spending hours on this special day when my family members called me a workaholic affectionately, but I couldn’t let you hang tight waiting. I felt for our volunteer admins as this is really a tedious and manual task taking several hours. I knew you were eager to get started. So, here we are, all set for your contributions to shine. Welcome aboard!

I wrote this short piece as a Christmas present to kickstart your writing journey in 2024. I won’t dive into the nitty-gritty of the rules since our volunteers have meticulously documented everything in our master onboarding pack. You may take a peek before sending in your stories.

Purpose of this Special Story and the Context

My aim is to paint a big-picture view of a writing career and how to make the best use of this platform, drawing from my years of experience.

To provide some context, I founded ILLUMINATION on March 19, 2020, by inviting approximately 100 writers I had been engaging with at the time. Since then, this publication has become a sensation, gathering over 25,000 contributors and publishing more than a million stories due to its immense value.

As ILLUMINATION grew beyond the capacity of our 30 editors, as Medium does not allow more per pub, I took the initiative to establish and integrate multiple publications. Currently, we have 12 publications catering to various writer and reader audiences, all made possible with the support of 145 volunteer editors, administrators, and moderators within our Slack Workspace.

I want to highlight that our publications are entirely run by volunteers who don’t receive any financial compensation. Each of us dedicates our time willingly and voluntarily to these tasks. While there are no tangible rewards, the experience offers numerous intangible benefits, including connecting with new individuals, forming meaningful connections, and gaining valuable insights from diverse perspectives.

Medium and my publications act like serendipity machines. Through this platform, I’ve encountered incredible people, formed lifelong friendships, and found collaborators. I’ve even written a case study delving into the intangible advantages of writing on Medium, aiming to provide new writers with a broader perspective.

While my publications strive to be inclusive, diverse, and tolerant, we’ve refined our guidelines to adhere to Medium’s shift toward quality content. As of August 2023, we’ve updated our rules and now focus on publishing one meticulously crafted story per day from each contributor to ensure excellence over quantity. You may find the rules in our updated submission guidelines.

Our team of volunteer editors diligently screens every piece to maintain a safe and respectful environment. They ensure that no harmful content, such as hate speech, defamation, conspiracy theories, explicit material, child abuse, illicit drugs, plagiarized content, or AI-generated material, is published.

ILLUMINATION covers a wide array of topics, except for erotica and Medium-centric stories. If you’re a beginner or exploring your voice, our editors might refer lower-impact stories to Readers Hope or ILLUMINATION’s Mirror. Our top-tier stories reside on ILLUMINATION-Curated, a prestigious publication reserved for accomplished writers with proven track records and extended by invitation to advanced writers.

After this quick rundown, here are a few helpful tips to boost your writing success on Medium.

Main Writing Focus

Above all, prioritize quality over quantity for your growth. Keep your audience in mind when crafting your stories, ensuring they delight, inform, educate, or entertain your readers. Essentially, aim for stories that captivate and engage, ensuring views and reads, as I detailed in an earlier piece.

Now, Medium awards writers by boosting their stories. As a boost nominator, I provided guidance in an interview.

In addition, I crafted a comprehensive checklist to increase the chance of boosting of your stories.

Boosted stories might also go viral, but I provided additional guidance for writing viral content based on my research on 25 December 2021 as a Christmas gift to our community

Clearing Income Perceptions

Additionally, it’s crucial not to perceive Medium as a quick money-making platform because, truthfully, it isn’t. Despite some claims, earning a six-figure income on Medium is exceedingly rare, reserved for a handful of individuals with over 100K subscribers (not followers).

Through my observation and interviews with thousands of accomplished writers, I found only three who consistently make over 5K a month. Regrettably, the earnings of these three accomplished writers even halved after August.

However, you can earn significant supplementary income on Medium by repurposing your content on other platforms, gaining paid subscribers through Substack or Patreon, ghostwriting, turning your stories into books, converting them into educational materials, and exploring numerous other options. I discussed these in an article before.

The Value of Meaningful Engagement

Now, I want to address a sensitive but crucial topic candidly. Upon investigation by our administrators last month, it came to light that 8000 of our writers are non-members. While they don’t financially contribute to writers' earnings, it’s worth noting. However, there’s a more critical aspect to this that I’d like to openly discuss with you for your growth and success on Medium.

Publications on Medium are built on collaborative principles, aiming to unite writers and readers. Every writer is also a reader. If you’re not a member, it means missing out on reading and engaging with other writers’ stories — a significant missed opportunity. Without engaging with their stories, it’s less likely they’ll engage with yours.

I’ve written about this topic from my secondary account curating tech stories a few weeks back. However, since that account has fewer followers, the story didn’t reach many of our writers. I’ll link it here for your reference.

If you’re able to afford $5 a month, it can be a fantastic investment for your growth on this platform. It pays dividends — I’m certain of it. I mentor around 500 new writers yearly, and every person I’ve recommended to become a member has gained at least ten times more followers and 50 times more loyal readers. You can do the math yourself.

Medium Friendship

As of this month, Medium introduced a new subscription model for readers called Medium Friendship. It offers fantastic benefits for both writers and readers. You can find all the details about its benefits in this recent story.

I upgraded all my publication accounts to Medium Friends to help our editors read and curate stories, boosting our writers’ earnings.

Additionally, on my Medium anniversary on December 21, I upgraded my main account to support writers’ earnings, as detailed in the attached story. I’ve also connected with early adopters who upgraded to Medium Friendship, and they can share their reasons with you.

Editorial Guidance

Since creating my publications, I’ve crafted numerous stories aimed at guiding new writers. This brief message can’t cover all their insights, so you’ll find the relevant ones listed here. These pieces encapsulate my decades of experience in content development and marketing strategy.

Effective Communication and Collaboration

Medium’s communication options are quite restricted, only offering private messages. To enhance interaction and collaboration among our writers and editors, I’ve set up a free, moderated Slack workspace.

Our editor Aiden (Illumination Gaming) also created a Discord channel for those who cannot use Slack.

These resources are open to all writers, boasting around 20,000 members who collaborate and share their stories to expand their readership. While I’m available for assistance on Slack or Discord, my responses might not be instant.

Managing 12 publications, addressing issues, and overseeing boosts as the owner and chief editor demands a significant portion of my time, along with my editing and writing responsibilities.

We typically tag our new writers for notifications instead of sending emails, as it’s a better practice. Your emails are solely used for inviting you to Slack and adding you to our Substack library, where we share our monthly updates.

Account Safety and Security

Finally, keep your account safe and secure with vigilance. For example, recently, hackers and scammers cloned my account and tried to deceive my readers by pretending to be me. As a writer and reader, you need to recognize such detrimental behavior. I explained it in a recent story.

Conclusion and Welcome New Writers

I trust this brief story offers some guidance and a starting point for engaging with our publications, aiding in the growth of your profile on this fantastic platform. For more about my background, feel free to explore my editorial profile.

Here’s a list of writers that I added to our publications today.

Organic Ukrainist (Kashadoo), Kratika Chetwani, Sunanda, Sunanda, Nov Tech, Christabelle Pabalan, J.O. Phine, Chet Chung, Even Writes, Robbie J, Chris by thebootcode.io, Urvashi J, This Writer, ArtisKev N., Sonali Yadav, Sunanda, Hallel K., Jade Se Tho, Fadi Amani, albert nahas, Mrudali Birla, Nour’s, Nedelcu Alina, Insights by Cristiano Luchini, Wayne Basinger, Miguel Matos, Moloko Creative Agency, *Gently puts my mental health in rice*, Suvan Goel, Sally, J.O. Phine, Susan Fourtané, Dr. Manol Roussev, Derya Gungor, Ph.D., Gary Buzzard, Jade Se Tho, John Clark | The Trek, Bear Kosik, Cheyenne Martinez, Alexandra A. Smith, BSc, Oraorn Srichiangwang, Sheila Rose, Hirad Nourbakhsh, Dipti Rai, Jaydon He (@zen1th.fit), Renny J., John R. Miles, Darin Westly, Graeme Fowler, Joseph Reyes, Jess West, Elzawrites, younghock2, David Brimacombe, David Hayns, Ziqi W., Joseph Dalton, Pranshu “Maverick” Dwivedi, Zhenda Chia, Julian Hale, Background Noise Comics, Ali Griego, Through Opened Eye, Ritika Murarka, Mahesh Chandra, Jan G Sokol, Jinmin Lee, Baris A, JotBeat, Tjahaja, Tari Stenographer, Karo NoiseOfFreedom, — MOON PIE 🥧🌙, Mayuri Kapoor, Mood Palette, Abdulrazaq, Lilly Health, Wellness, and Fitness, Manthan, Aysia Marcum, wenbenjii, Soumyashree Thapa, Teaching with tech, Kareem Sauvan, Bruno Ewayu, Ruwithma Peiris, Nazli Can, Asmae Leghmid, carlos da costa, Susan Nnebe, Destiny Pifer, Belinda September, Nabila Asif Life Lesson Writer.

Welcome aboard, and have a lovely festive season.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

If you are interested in memoir writing to delight your readers, here are sample thematic memoir stories from my collection.

To inform my new readers, I wrote numerous articles that might inform and inspire you. My topics include brain and cognitive function, significant health conditions, longevity, nutrition/food, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, writing/reading, and humor.

100+ Insightful Life Lessons from My Circles for the Last 50+ Years

I publish my health and wellness stories on EUPHORIA. My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness. Be Your Own Therapist in 10 Steps.

If you are a writer, you are welcome to join my publications by sending a request via this link. I support 25K+ writers who contribute to my publications on this platform. I also have another profile to write and curate tech stories.