Leadership and Innovation
Introduction to ILLUMINATION-Curated
The purpose and progress of a new publication using the power of ILLUMINATION
The purpose of this story is to introduce a new publication named ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Purpose of ILLUMINATION-Curated
ILLUMINATION-Curated is a new publication extending the capabilities of the main publication, ILLUMINATION, with 15,000 writers and 58,000 followers.
Lessons learned from ILLUMINATION and the capabilities we developed will be used to kick-start the new publication. For example, we have 30K+ subscribers to our current publication.
At least 10K followers are interested in reading curated and outstanding stories. This demand justified the need to create this new publication.
The primary purpose of the new publication is to amplify the messages of advanced writers to an extended audience using innovative techniques.
The secondary purpose is to set a benchmark for the writers of ILLUMINATION and give a purposeful goal for improving writing skills and being recognized as an advanced writer.
How do we achieve these goals?
There are three ways for an article to be included in the new publication.
First, a Medium-curated article was published in ILLUMINATION, selected by our editors, and approved for a move by the writer from ILLUMINATION to ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Second, articles published in ILLUMINATION, non-Medium curated, but meeting all submission guidelines, selected by our editors, and approved for transfer by the writer from ILLUMINATION to ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Third, direct submissions by approved writers for ILLUMINATION-Curated, meeting all submission guidelines and approved by our editors.
Progress of Pilot Initiative
I announced ILLUMINATION-Curated on 2 September 2020.
We started our pilot initiative by reviewing exceptional stories hosted on ILLUMINATION. In this pilot, our 35 editors review each nominated piece, use a voting system and if we reach a consensus, we propose the writer submit it to our new publication named ILLUMINATION-curated.
Within the last five days, we had an overwhelming response from accomplished writers. They want to share their outstanding stories in a curated publication. We also received excellent feedback from our beta readers.
Here are the stats from the publication dashboard.
The following screenshot depicts the progress of visitors to the new publication.
The following screenshot indicates the progress for reading time.
Criteria Based Curation
Fundamentally, your stories must meet Medium curation guidelines at a minimum to qualify as a permanent writer for ILLUMINATION-Curated.
We understand that even if you religiously follow the guidelines, your articles may not be curated by Medium, as it was stated in the Medium guideline, the curation process is subjective.
We won’t undermine the quality of your story if it is not curated by Medium.
I read and distributed hundreds of remarkable stories which were not curated by Medium.
However, we must evaluate your story by using our rigorous and objective process based on Medium curation guidelines.
If your story matches the criteria, even if we disagree with your content, we still qualify your story for ILLUMINATION-Curated. This impartiality reflects our fairness value.
Our end goal is to provide high-quality and high-impact content to our esteemed readers. ILLUMINATION-Curated aims to generate a new audience, different than generic publications.
We not only select high-quality articles, but we also edit them to meet the requirements of our readers. Editing is an added value we provide to our writers. As you know, editing is an expensive process. For example, a top writer with professional editing background requested $50 per article.
Our experienced editors will perform this duty-free of charge, as a giveback activity. They are not paid by writers, publication, or Medium. They only do this for charitable purposes. Therefore, I feel the privilege to have a team of volunteers to perform editing tasks for the success of our writers.
ILLUMINATION has 35 registered editors who can read and vote for stories to curate them for a wider audience looking for a quality reading experience. We have a plan to increase the number of editors to 100 who will also undertake the role of curators for the new publication.
Providing edited and curated stories to our reader is a paradigm shift for publication services.
Our diligent editors select high quality and high impact content. Then they create a poll in our secure Slack channel using an application.
Here is a sample screenshot displaying the rigor we invest in the curation process.
I summarized the set of criteria extracted from Medium curation guidelines.
Increasing Chance of Visibility and Readability
If you submit a curated article to ILLUMINATION-Curated, your curated story by Medium will also be curated by ILLUMINATION.
Even though we usually accept only draft submissions, as a bonus, we created an exception for your curated articles.
If you have a published article curated by Medium before, even if it is old; you can still submit the article. We value articles chosen by Medium curation process.
Double curation can bring you many benefits.
Medium supports curated stories by several means. ILLUMINATION plan to use the same model and extend the model with targeted distribution and innovative means.
Benefits of the ILLUMINATION curation process
Here are three essential benefits.
1. Our curation process will not depend on algorithms but on human beings.
2. Our curation process will be based on the agreed criteria and will use the level of rigor that peer-reviewed journals perform.
3. Our curation process is 100% objective.
These three significant points aim to address the root causes of the suffering that many writers experience. The suffering reflects well-documented evidence from thousands of stories. I tasted the pain. My vision is to reduce this pain as much as possible by using innovative content management skills.
We believe that writers need objectivity for selection of their content for distribution. Our diversity, inclusiveness, and fairness values require us to remain objective.
We proved the implementation of our values. ILLUMINATION started with only 100 writers five months ago. Now, 3,800 writers write for our publication. Readers value our publication. We started with ZERO followers, and now 32,000 followers are reading the content of our writers.
ILLUMINATION editors do not curate based on subjective taste.
We are leading the content development industry by introducing objectivity by using innovative techniques based on our established values.
Other Benefits
This innovative process also has other benefits.
I believe that if ILLUMINATION editors/curators choose stories of our writers and publish them in our new platform, these stories are more likely curated by Medium due to editing rigor that we invest in these stories.
If it is not curated by Medium, it means that the subjectivity of the curator affects the outcome. But, at least your high quality and high impact article will still be curated and distributed to a targeted group. We aim to relieve your pain by at least 50%.
As you know, ILLUMINATION has a success record for curation. Please see this artifact as a piece of evidence.
We are working hard to increase the curation rate of our writers.
Our editors and I created many tools and refined our processes to help you.
As you know, Medium distributes curated stories to its readers on the front-page, on-topic pages, in an app, in the Daily Digest newsletter, and emails.
ILLUMINATION will follow a similar model but extend the current model to amplify messages to a broader and target audience at the same time.
ILLUMINATION-Curated publication, empowered by the capabilities of ILLUMINATION, is a paradigm shift for content curation, distribution, and marketing.
Initial Resources
Tree Langdon (senior editor) explained the pilot process and the interim solution in a story.
Dew Langrial (senior editor) provided two guiding stories to support this initiative. The attached story is a step by step guide on how to improve writing in curation standards.
The second story is an educative guide on how to improve curation chance on Medium. This unique story is based on the experience of Dew whose stories on ILLUMINATION were curated and distributed to multiple topics.
Welcome to ILLUMINATION-Curated
If you are a current ILLUMINATION writer, you can apply for the new publication because high-quality stories curated by ILLUMINATION will be transferred to this new publication addressing a special reading audience.
To transfer your story from ILLUMINATION to ILLUMINATION-Curated, you need to be a writer for both. This is a technical requirement. Medium does not allow us to copy and paste from one publication to another. The writers need to remove the story from one publication and add it to another.
We know that communication on Medium can be challenging. If we are only dependent on the Medium private message, it can be difficult to communicate.
However, we created a free Slack group with over 6000 members joined already and successfully collaborating. Our writers can communicate with our editors with no limitation.
All our editors are on Slack. They participate in public chat, and they can also have a private chat, one on one with the writers. This is a wonderful opportunity for Medium writers.
Readers Perspective
ILLUMINATION is a reader-focused publication. Since I established this publication, we communicate with the readers every day using various methods, Slack groups, Social Media, Email, Newsletter, Skype, and Webex.
We also distribute our stories every day to serve our readers as a daily digest. Readers love my distribution list as they can access hundreds of stories from a single story.
In addition, we archived 60,000 stories easily accessible from a single story.
Based on my interaction with thousands of readers, I identified that advanced readers prefer edited and curated stories by experienced editors.
As most of our editors have advanced writing and editing experience.
We want to utilize their capability as curators. With reader feedback, we know about our audience. Based on my technology background, I provide rich and supportive data for our team.
The new publication primarily will serve a special target reader group. However, we believe that other reader personas can benefit from our high quality content.
These primary readers have specific goal. They are not after simple tricks on Medium. They don’t care how many cents Medium writers are earning. They don’t care about drama in Medium. But they want to enjoy the quality and high impact materials for our society.
This audience comprises professionals in science, technology, business, arts, philosophy, self-improvement and other disciplines.
ILLUMINATION-Curated is ready to review now.
We already have useful feedback from our small group of beta readers.
It is at the pilot stage, and we will improve it with feedback from our readers and writers. Our senior editor Tree Langdon documented the interim guidelines inspiring our writers to level up to the next levels in their writing practice.
We will share the complete submission guidelines very soon. The process is under review by our editors.
ILLUMINATION curation process is relatively objective, inclusive, fair, and, rewarding. It is also based on consensus and assessed by experience and caring human editors.
ILLUMINATION is a value-oriented publication. So is ILLUMINATION-Curated. You can read the summary of our core values created by ILLUMINATION. This account is designed to inform and empower our writers. Please consider following ILLUMINATION account so that you don’t miss important announcements and daily updates for our writers and readers for both publications.
INVITATION TO JOIN BOTH:
“ILLUMINATION” AND “ILLUMINATION-CURATED”
ILLUMINATION is an innovative serendipity platform with optimistic writers, editors, and readers collaborating to create synergy. You too can join, engage, and make your dreams real. Our writers and readers are diverse, inclusive, and supportive.
We can improve your content for higher quality and increase the chance of curation, and you can collaborate with our top writers and model their success. As a bonus, we love supporting writers and amplifying success stories with facts.
If you want to join these two vibrant publications, please send a request via this link. We will help you succeed!
If you are a new writer, we recommend joining ILLUMINATION. If you are an accomplished writer with a reasonable curation rate or good knowledge of Medium curation guidelines, you can request access to ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
If you find this article valuable, you might check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments.
Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers
Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
Why 442 Million People Live Diabetic and What We Can Do About it
Six Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Lower the Risks of Mental Disorders
What Can We Do About NCDs Killing 41 Million People Yearly?.
Reduce the Risks of Neonatal Disorders to Prevent Infant Mortality.
Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits
I also write about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
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.
