Curated Collection
Collection of Boosted Stories from ILLUMINATION-Curated — V1
And good news for ILLUMINATION-Gaming being a new boost-nominating publication
Dear Readers and Writers,
Happy December! In this post, we introduce recently boosted stories through our nominations led by our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz, also the founder of ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION, and our other specialized publications.
ILLUMINATION-Curated is a distinctive publication hosting and spotlighting high-quality, memorable, relatable, and insightful stories from talented writers covering 100+ topics since 2020. This publication is designed to showcase the stories of experienced and accomplished writers.
As of October 2023, ILLUMINATION-Curated has started nominating stories for boosting. You can learn details from an interview with Dr Mehmet Yildiz conducted by ILLUMINATION editors.
Many new writers want to join this publication and wish to understand the criteria. Unlike our other publications, this one only serves experienced writers as its loyal readers desire. For those interested, we have detailed submission guidelines.
After reviewing it, if you believe our offering resonates with you, please contact Dr. Yildiz on ILLUMINATION’s Slack workspace. He will give you writer access. He also mentors many writers to increase their chances of boosting on Medium.
Approximately 80% of our applicants belong to the middle category, making them valuable contributors to ILLUMINATION. We then distribute the workload evenly between Readers Hope and ILLUMINATION-Curated, managing both ends of the spectrum.
We start absolute beginners with Readers Hope, then allow them to tap into a broader audience via ILLUMINATION and our special publications like Synergy, Mirror, Book Chapters, Technology Hits, Gaming, Videos/Podcasts, and Nutrition. Then, we select writers who consistently submit high-quality stories to be added to ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Congratulations, ILLUMINATION Gaming as New Boost Nominating Publication on Medium
Our hardworking editor and also the owner of the gaming publication Aiden (Illumination Gaming) announced today that his publication was also selected to participate in the boost program. You can learn more about from his recent story.
ILLUMINATION Gaming Is Part of the Boost Program Now
We look forward to your stories in all our publications, and we will choose well-crafted, memorable, and impactful stories through our nominators. In addition, Medium curators also organically boosted hundreds of stories from ILLUMINATION, which we plan to share in another collection.
For new writers, any story submitted to ILLUMINATION-Curated must align with Medium’s distribution and boosting guidelines like any other publications in our management. Furthermore, we emphasize that the content should resonate with the discerning readership of this publication.
We value diversity and variety, which means there are no topic restrictions as long as the stories adhere to Medium’s policies and our values.
Currently, we cover over 100 topics, emphasizing substance and meaningful content for our readers. We expect to cater to more topics as our writers and readers propose.
We do not censor content as long as stories comply with Medium’s guidelines.
Since Medium now requires paid membership for the Partner Program, we will also include stories of members for this publication to maintain our high standards and commitment to our loyal readers. However, our other publications still support non-members.
Except for the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION, our publications don’t accept AI-generated content. You may learn about our AI writing policy.
In addition to Medium’s distribution guidelines, ILLUMINATION-Curated has established a specific set of criteria to enhance the quality of publications.
We aim for high quality but don’t insist on perfection. We are practical and believe every writer can improve with feedback from readers, editors, and peers. Our goal is to provide our subscribers with a pleasant and satisfying reading experience.
Today, we share recently boosted stories through our nominations to give readers valuable stories to read and writers examples to emulate to increase their chances of boosting on Medium.
Boosted Stories in November 2023
Dying Is the Most Intimate Space We Ever Share Beth Riungu
Mr. Speaker, There’s No Such Thing as a “Bible-Believing” Christian Guy Nave
Recent Discoveries and Potential Breakthroughs in Microbiome Health Matt Williams-Spooner, Ph.D.
If You Eat a Healthy Diet, Save Your Money Because You Don’t Need Probiotics and Prebiotics David Mokotoff, MD
Future Doctors and Nurses Don’t Want to See Patients Dr. Julian Barkan
5 Surprising Links Between Fitness and Photography Zacc Rowlands
An Alternative Lens on Prayer Davor Katusic
Synaesthesia I: A Life of Colors, The Early Years Donn K. Harris
The Gap in Male/Female Life Expectancy Keeps Growing Dr. Julian Barkan
When The Great Himalayas Went Grey on Us, Literally Somil Gupta
Examining the Impact of Rice Consumption on Type 2 Diabetes Prevalence Antonio Segovia, MD.
Shutting Down the Inner Critic to Liberate Your True Self Mark Sanford, Ph.D.
Remembering to Live Pernoste & Dahl
Why Business Organizations Must Implement the Zero Trust Security Strategy and Execute It… David Pui | Digital Transformation Architect
New Discoveries that Redefine our View of Diet, Weight Gain, Exercise, and Health Matt Williams-Spooner, Ph.D.
How to Be Safe in the World of Cybercrime Jussi Luukkonen – your curiosity guide
Why Ban “Divisive” Teachings While Protecting Divisive Confederate Monuments? Guy Nave
Overcoming Post-COVID-19 Long-Lasting Olfactory Issues Antonio Segovia, MD.
How My Grandmother’s Legacy Goes Beyond the Wrinkles Gabriela Trofin-Tatár
Stories Boosted in October 2023
Should Doctors Be Less or More Empathetic? Dr. Julian Barkan
How Cholesterol Levels Impact Your Heart Health Dr. K P Vasudeva Rao
How discovering microbes transformed our understanding of life and health Matt Williams-Spooner, Ph.D.
Four Ways to Balance Your Content Creation Obsession by Clayton Moulynox
Neuroscience Behind Why I Read 1000 Books With My Son Before He Turned 5 Prashansa Gadgil
Can I Connect with My Transgender Daughter as I Connected with My Son? Tony Leo
How Ōura Got the Fitness Geeks and Insomniacs Around Its Little Finger Jussi Luukkonen — your curiosity guide
How Survivorship Bias Colors Our World: Impact and How to Overcome It Sridhar Pai Tonse — Leadgen Coach- Tech Startups
Lessons from the Grave Sara Fellers on ChannSpirations and Coincidences
Grandma and God Brought Me Home AJ on ChannSpirations and Coincidences
Facing the Judge and Jury of Your Inner Critic jules — Miz Mindful
The Island Odyssey: A Weeklong Adventure in Rhodes Jozsef Kovacs
Organically Boosted Stories of Dr Yildiz
As mentioned below, Medium curators also directly boost stories without nomination. Dr. Yildiz shared some of his stories, so we added them here as samples to guide our writers.
Here’s How I Train My Brain Daily for Mental Clarity and Intellectual Productivity.
Meditation Can Boost the Cortical Thickness in the Brain and Prevent the Thinning of It
Here’s How to Make the Nervous System More Flexible and Functional
A New Clinical Trial Found a Low-Carb Diet Better Than the Dash.
How Writers Can Attract More Readers by Using Design Thinking Principles
Here’s Why I Focus on Nutritional Biochemistry Rather Than Diets
Queer Organisms: Nature’s Lesson for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equality
Thank you for reading these wonderful stories.
How to access updated submission guidelines
New writers need to review these guidelines before submitting their stories to relevant publications. ILLUMINATION publications do not accept all types of stories anymore. We want all writers to change this perception.
ILLUMINATION Videos and Podcasts: Submission Guidelines 2023
Publishing and Conduct Guidelines for the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION
New Curation Service by ILLUMINATION
Why We Have a New Curation Service
Boosted stories are doing well, but 99% of great stories hardly gain visibility. Understandably, Medium can’t boost all great stories. However, writers pour their hearts and souls, and stories don’t have any views, even from the followers of writers or publications. We don’t know the reasons.
To address the visibility of stories, out of 145 volunteer editors, our team of around 50 volunteer curators developed a new service idea. 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.
Additionally, our lead curator includes them in a LIST, a fantastic Medium feature. Feel free to save, share on social media, link to your stories, comment, and like the list for increased visibility. These lists will be created monthly, and here’s our first list for your engagement.
The entire curation process takes up much of our volunteers’ time, so we will appreciate your support as your time allows.
We noticed that engagement rates have been low. But Medium now rewards writers based on engagement. Therefore, we encourage our readers and writers to engage meaningfully with the stories we curate.
We understand everyone has different tastes, and you can’t read every story. However, if each reader selects a few stories, shares them, and engages with them, we can significantly increase views and reading times for these stories that usually get minimal visibility and delight our writers.
Collaboration among writers and readers is crucial on Medium, making it a great place for both. All our editors and administrators are volunteers, dedicating their time to give a voice to every writer. They review and publish stories daily without any payment. Let’s recognize their contributions and use this service graciously.
Our curators, editors, and administrators are committed to this duty. However, if they don’t see acceptance, they might stop. We highly encourage you to support this new curation service by choosing great stories, meaningfully engaging with them, and supporting your favorite writers.
Leaving comments, giving claps, sharing on social media, and following profiles will delight these writers. In an upcoming bulletin, we’ll share more information on how we use our Slack workspace to expand this service to all writers to be part of the curation process.
For example, we created a channel for writers to nominate their own stories and another channel to nominate stories of their favorite writers.
We hope you enjoy this service and look forward to your support for these beautifully written stories. Please leave a comment about these nominated and chosen stories you enjoy, the writers you follow, and any recommendations to improve our services.
You can access our internally curated stories from the following links.
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, and Volume 15, and Volume 16, Volume 17, Volume 18, Volume 19, Volume 20
Many thanks Aiden (Illumination Gaming) to creating shareable lists for these collections daily.
In addition, our senior editor, Mike Broadly, DHSc, has started his curation progress by sharing stories he reads daily. Here are the links to Mike’s collections.
Introduction to Writers
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, Seda Anbarcı
You might also check recent editorial introductions from our team.
You can learn about our other editors’ backgrounds from this collection curated by ILLUMINATION-Curators.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz also interviewed many writers. Here are the recent ones.
An Interview with Dr. Yogesh Haribhau Kulkarni, PhD — Yogesh Haribhau Kulkarni (PhD)
An Interview with Author, Raymond M.E. Aguirre Raymond M.E. Aguirre
Here’s an Interview with Hakima TANTRIKA Hakima T A N T R I K A
These top writers produce outstanding and authentic content that informs their readers.
In the attached collection, you might find more interviews with other great writers and explore their inspiring and engaging content on Medium.
You might also check our new Let’s Make Invisible Stories Visible collection compiled by our editor Elin Melaas.
If you are interested in joining our editorial team, please feel free to contact our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz, on Illumination’s Slack Workspace.
You may check out the criteria for our volunteer editorial role.
Meet Our New Writers
Let’s welcome writers joining us recently.
Sebastian Salazar, Simon El Marino, John isikli, Diana Brand, John Worthington, Elyess ben amor, Jason Newton, Lee Penn, PhD, Freddie Howard, Gaurav Dahiya, ChrisCrutch, Emma K Turner, Dan Martin, Connie Ottmann, Diana G.Pinto,, Darren Matthews, Crime Desk, Aletheia Chan, Alex Manea, Quack Quack, Twinkle Moitra, Kim Fedyk, Jaena Christen, Hayley Lokey, Stacey Patterson, J.D., Boysie Gordon, James Bullen, Elaine Hilides, Emil, Sam Pitzer, Cassey Canestaro, Mongorock, Jari Roomer, Suraj Jha, Karolina Magdalena Gladych, Louis K, Sage Green, Matthew Jack, Radhika, Lulu Bird, Deb Kalmbach, Deb Kalmbach, George Warwicks, Benjamin Akyea, MaxwellGeorge, Gusto Reader, AliceNakae, Cameron Waters, Tommaso Nobili, Maria Chebyniak, Artur Pawlik, Caterlux, Calloway Song, Fe Chi, Carl Jeffers, Alexandra Gratsas, Sarah Lynn Terzo, Keisha Greaves, Hamza Alam, Julia Denise, Ruhi Hanan, Donnie Van Meer, AInJapan, Egor Howell, Egor Howell, Dr. Dominic Etli, Quintius Walker, John Hide, Alexandru Gavrilovici, Catherine Gagnon, Janine Evans, Shuvranil Sanyal, The Real Olive -Love, Dating & Adulting, Mustafa96.com, Epic Dreamweaver, Pebble, Jimmy Wong, Gusto Reader, Zeem, Tom Calarco, CHoek, Mohammed Shahid Ullah, Nnadi Victor C., Novelette Gilles, Jami Dawson, J.K. Emsun, Sompa Mensah, Devanshee Dave, Amin Salih, Pranath Fernando | AI Consultant, Darshak Rana, Sophia, Shruti Mishra, Sevan Topalian, Just Wandering, — Jay Duran, Shubhra Kathuria, Carl Jeffers, D. Llabaria, Jose Argueta, Aninda Baruah, ASAD EDUCATE, sam sowell, Frances A. Chiu, Ainy Abraham, Lisa Buchanan, Natali Martinez, The Gutsy Latina, Lara Makkapati, Ryan Closter, Archie N. Hodge, Diana Mroczek, Ryan Doskocil, Jared S Massey, Kirshi Yin, Tommaso Nobili, Kunal, Prakash Bhadraiah, Pranath Fernando — AI Strategist, Brooke Lewis, RetroFuturist, Enjoleah Daye, Abhishek Gurumadhva, Benjamin Akyea, Jonas Achouri Sihlén, Furkan Samut, Mhd Irshad, Laura Bell, Tamara Sonak, Antonio Duplessis, Boysie Gordon, Alexandra Gratsas, Arie Castle, Mark Tey , Karl Carver, Dinah W,
New writers are welcome to create a BIO introducing themselves from their pen. As an altruistic activity, our editor Aiden, compiles these writer bios and promotes them. You can learn from this story.
You may meet more and follow many more new writers listed in these mini-onboarding packs.
We will add these lists to a new collection soon.
Invitation to New Writers
ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications are inclusive and diverse, supporting 25,000+ contributors. Different levels of writers, from absolute beginners to the most accomplished ones, delight our readers with their educative and engaging content.
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.
ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications include:
ILLUMINATION ILLUMINATION-Curated ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR ILLUMINATION Book Chapters Technology Hits SYNERGY Readers Hope Illumination on YouTube Illumination Gaming Lampshade of Illumination ILLUMINATION’s Blog EUPHORIA by Dr Mehmet Yildiz
Please review our onboarding pack before sending any story to ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications. We only accept stories meeting Medium policies and our guidelines.