Leadership Excellence
Congratulations, ILLUMINATION Writers!
For attracting thousands of readers with your contributions.
It was only three months ago that I posted an article referring to 20,000 followers in our second milestone. Today, ILLUMINATION reached another milestone.
40,000+ Medium readers follow our contributing writers.
Congratulations on this signification achievement. I am grateful and appreciate your contributions.
We started with around 80 writers seven months ago. Yes, ILLUMINATION was just an idea seven months ago.
It is an absolute pleasure, privilege, and honor to bring 5,000 writers contributing to a publication and serving 40,000 readers using the power of a publication. It was not easy, of course. I discuss the challenges of the publications in this story.
My main goal for creating this publication is to bring a diverse range of writers to collaborate and create synergy. Despite the challenges of the platform and adversity we get from a few jealous, mediocre, and idiotic people disguised as leaders, we doubled our followers within the last three months. I was confused yet grateful and thanked our opponents. The stats are transparent, on July 15, we had 20K, and today (October 23), we have 40K followers.
This notable success depends on two key factors. We value our readers and support our writers. Our readers are happy with the variety of content spanning over 100 topics. As some of our valued readers pointed out, there are no dull moments on ILLUMINATION.
We give voice to writers at all levels. We are proud to support different levels of writers — aspiring, experienced, accomplished, and influential. You all play an essential role in this platform. Our 42 diligent and volunteering editors relentlessly work across the globe for the success of our writers and to create quality materials for our readers.
The power of ILLUMINATION comes from cross-pollinating all types of writers from different professional backgrounds, skill levels, and writing goals in an innovative way. This unique collage of writers is an attractive value proposition to our readers demanding stories on multiple topics.
To facilitate this cross-pollination, we established a new initiative by curating a curated collection. This collection manifested as a new publication called ILLUMINATION-Curated. 20% of our writers (around 1,000) now contributing to this unique collection delighting thousands of discerning readers. We have already experienced several viral stories and distributed 34 volumes: Stories on ILLUMINATION-Curated — All Volumes
I have a clear transition plan for 80% (4,000) of our writers to level up and become part of this unique initiative. You can learn about the initiative: “How to Benefit of ILLUMINATION-Curated”. ILLUMINATION will sustain as a gold mine of our curated collection. Our diligent editors know how to mine gold and perform it efficiently.
Publications are important for the success of writers on Medium. There are thousands of publications. Different publications have different goals. I focus on my publications and how I can add value to my contributing writers and supporting readers. I cannot speak on behalf of other publications, but my major goal is to use the power of collaboration among writers and readers.
Writing is the main job of writers. However, reading is a critical and distinguishing success factor. Writers are the best readers. Keep in mind that your most loyal readers are writers on Medium. Therefore, collaboration with other writers is important.
Just submitting your articles to a publication and waiting for success is not reasonable. As writers, we need to take responsibility for creating visibility to our content. There are millions of stories on Medium. We cannot expect the readers to find our story in this ocean. Our publication itself generated 70,000 articles within seven months.
My key point is meaningful engagement with other writers and gives compelling value to our readers. Writers must think like entrepreneurs to become successful. We must create value but also make it visible in meaningful and innovative ways.
I helped hundreds of bloggers to join Medium and transition them from blogging to story-writing. My advice to them as a new writer on Medium, their first activity is to learn the rules of engagement. At a basic level, to survive in a platform, we need to understand the rules and comply with the policies.
As new writers, you need to read the Medium rules. This is the link to make it easy for you to access this important resource. Even though it is a crucial resource, it is unfortunately often overlooked by new writers. Besides, the rules are forgotten by experienced writers, and the consequences are noticeable.
I want to emphasize the essential rules that you need to know regarding what Medium does not allow in the policy for content creation, sharing, and distribution. Understanding what Medium does not allow can make it easy to understand what to include in your content. The other way can be too complicated.
There are fourteen essential points. I extracted them from Medium rules to make it easy for you. Please read and understand them. Here is a summary of the rules.
1- Medium does not allow “content or actions that threaten, encourage, or incite violence against anyone, directly or indirectly”.
2- Medium does not allow “content that promotes violence or hatred against people based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity”.
3- Medium does not tolerate harassment in the form of “bullying, threatening, or shaming someone”.
4- Medium does not allow breaching privacy rules, primarily aiming to ruin the reputation of people.
5- Medium does not allow content for the promotion of harmful conspiracies, gambling, bullying, illegal sexual services, and facilitation of copyright violation.
6- Medium does not allow duplicate content.
7- Medium does not allow spam.
8- Medium does not allow using services, applications, and arrangements that offer you more follow claps or other interactions on your Medium account or content.
9- Medium does not allow copyright and trademark infringement.
10- Medium does not allow posting content impersonating a person or organization in a way likely to deceive people.
11- Medium does not allow product and service advertisements and promotions. Affiliate links in posts are allowed, but they need to be pointed out clearly.
12- Medium does not allow “gratuitously graphic or disturbing media, even if it’s not pornographic”.
13- Medium does not allow content, including the exploitation of minors.
14- Medium does not allow promotion and glorification of self-harm.
ILLUMINATION encourage writers to cover a wide variety of content with no censorship; however, if your stories include items listed above points, our editorial team will reject your stories. These items are not negotiable.
To become a successful writer, you need to focus on quality and quantity. Both matters. Quality is a subjective concept. We all can define quality using our thoughts and emotions. There is no consensus on quality. My definition of quality is producing acceptable content for our readers.
There are myriads of articles on Medium about improving quality. Some are confusing and conflicting. My recommendation to the new writers is to use Medium Curation Guidelines. New writers must read and understand the curation guidelines.
To make it easy and remind the other curation guidelines to other writers, I summarized them under seven points.
1- You story must meet a high editorial standard.
2- Your story must be written for the reader and add value to the reader.
3- Your story must be a complete piece of work.
4- You story must be written with rigor substantiated with facts.
5- Your story must offer a good reading experience with acceptable formatting.
6- Your story must be free from typos, spelling, and grammar errors.
7- Your story should include appropriate, relevant, and captioned photos.
These rules can guide you to increase the quality of your stories. They are not complex rules but can assist you to produce acceptable material by a majority of your readers on Medium.
One of the distinguishing factors between most read and least read writers is the importance of content for readers. We need to ask ourselves whether our content matter to the reader. In other words, we must write for the enjoyment of our readers, not for ourselves.
Let’s remember that Medium is designed on collaboration rules. You need to engage with your readers and other writers on this platform meaningfully. Collaboration is needed to create visibility of our content and to stay motivated to produce consistently.
Yes, quantity is also important. Quantity can be a personal preference based on our writing goals. I haven’t seen any hard rules related to the number of stories we need to create. However, the consensus is on publishing regularly and consistently.
The biggest challenge for new writers is the fear of criticism. It is an inevitable fact of life. Remember, even if you do everything right, you will be criticized, judged, and rejected. It is not possible to make everyone happy. In fact, there is no point to try to make everyone happy. You cannot. If you try to make everyone happy, you may lose your identity. The reality is that we have different goals, expectations, and aspirations.
In the big schema of things, opinions don’t matter, but our behavior, reactions, and actions do. My only recommendation is being aware of the harmful people and toxic behavior.
As a reminder to the new writers, this platform provides mechanisms to protect writers and readers. If a suspicious account is hurting you, you need to take actions. The immediate action is to block the account and to report it.
As a new writer, you need to focus on your work. Please ignore the inevitable noise, stay away from toxic people, and spend your energy to make your readers happy.
As a writer, our goal is to express ourselves and share our thoughts with readers. Yes, we all make mistakes. Without making mistakes, it is not possible to learn. If you follow Medium Rules and Curation Guidelines, you can reduce your errors and succeed on this platform.
We also need to enhance our network and meet new readers. I created supportive platforms extending the capabilities of our publications. You can review the guides and participate in these activities to reach out to a broader audience.
How to Get Started with Quora and Amplify Your Medium Stories
How to Get Started with Pinterest and Amplify Your Medium Stories
Learn about our Slack group compiled by Tree Langdon, CPA, CGA.
Here are a few actions and considerations for your success.
As new writers, please introduce yourself to your fellow writers and supportive readers by submitting a writer bio.
If you have publications, please introduce them. I will promote them for you.
Remember, you are not exclusive to us. ILLUMINATION Writers Can Write For Other Publications.
More information about our publication: ILLUMINATION Process & Procedures
Thank you for reading my perspective.
To join ILLUMINATION and ILLUMINATION-Curated, please send a request via this link. We will help you succeed. 15,000+ writers contribute to our publications.
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I also write about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include health or professional advice. I documented my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. I wrote several articles on major diseases and valuable nutrients for health. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my seven publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link.
You might find more information about my professional background.