Happy New Year. Welcome! Based on feedback, we present our onboarding pack in a new format, answering frequently asked questions first, introducing writers’ accounts, and then providing reference articles at the end. The post looks long. So, you may only review relevant parts for you. New members on Medium ask these questions frequently so we need to answer them in this initial post.
Simply, we do not accept plagiarised content. We usually tolerate mistakes and support our writers to correct procedural and writing errors. However, we do not tolerate plagiarism and copyrighted photos. Editors regularly check plagiarism. They reject plagiarised content. We remove your accounts and stories from our publications when you attempt plagiarism. Medium also penalizes plagiarists. We warn our contributors rigorously due to dire consequences. Copyright Matters: Zero tolerance to plagiarism on ILLUMINATION.
What is your photo handling policy?
We don’t accept content with copyrighted images. It is against Medium rules and our publication policy. Please pay attention to photos in your stories to meet our guidelines. When you submit articles with copyright-free images and cite them properly, your stories can be published quicker. Please review the image handling policy before submitting your articles. We updated our policy with an addendum adding clarity for fair use principles and explained Why Image Copyrights Matter for Writers and Editors.
How do you communicate with writers?
Our publications operate on Medium. By using Slack, we extend collaboration capability. Our chief editor and owner of these publications, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, will invite you to the Slack workspace via your registered email addresses in the writer application form. If you don’t get the invitation Slack, please leave a comment pointing out the problem in this article. Your participation in the Slack workspace is free and optional. We highly recommend you join our Slack workspace as it is a valuable tool for maintaining communication and collaboration. Many writers enjoy this free service. More than 10,000 members have joined to have meaningful interactions. You can easily access publications resources and editors using the Slack workspace. We have 80 volunteer editors who can help with your inquiries. You can learn more about Slack in this article: An Introduction to ILLUMINATION Slack Workspace.
Why do you sometimes delay adding writers?
It sometimes takes from five to ten days to add writers depending on the volume. As you can see from previous onboarding packs, hundreds of people apply to our publications weekly. Reviewing their requests, and adding many writers to publications is a tedious and time-consuming task. There is no automation feature on Medium. We have to enter each writer one by one. However, we apologise for the slight delays caused by several editors on vacation during this festive season.
Where can we find your publishing guidelines?
We have seven publications serving various needs of writers. Our purpose is to help you reach a broader audience on Medium and beyond. Since our publications operate on Medium, all contributors need to adhere to the policies and rules of the platform. Please check these two resources before submitting your stories.
We don’t censor content as long as your stories meet Medium guidelines such as not including hate speech, defamation, conspiracy theories, and porn. Please note that, your readers expect a basic level of English in your content. Therefore, you need to meet language requirements. We accept only English. Different publications support other languages. Please search Medium for your desired language. If you want to share raw content, you can submit them to the Readers Hope publication designed for this purpose. Other publications require the use of structured language.
How can we increase our followers, readers, and subscribers?
This is a critical point for all writers because stories generate income with the help of your readers. Your content is paid based on reading times by paid members of Medium. Thus, performance metrics such as applause don’t matter for payment. However, followers count for getting at least 100 followers to join the Medium Partner Program. Please check these articles guiding to gain followers, building an audience, and maintaining subscribers.
Becoming a top writer can be helpful to earn extra income on Medium. In addition, top writer status might increase your chance of getting more readers. You can check accounts of our top writers in this article and inform us when you gain the status so that we can add your account for visibility. Here is an article providing you guidance on becoming a top writer quickly.
Your success is vital to our editors. Thus, we propose writing challenges to boost your performance. These challenges can be helpful for your growth on Medium. Your participation can help you gain new followers and readers. You may join the 100-day writing challenge.We invited writers to a writing prompt. You can introduce yourself and your favorite stories.We craeted a challenge for prolific writers interested in posting multiple short stories a day 1,000 Short Posts in 100 Days.
Who are your editors and what is their role?
Our editors are writers like you on Medium. They understand your needs with empathy. These editors are not paid or compensated financially. Their purpose is to help you gain experience and visibility. They review your stories, screen harmful materials, provide improvement guidance, and publish your stories. You can read their profiles in this collection.
Writing viral stories is also critical to increasing your reading times. Dr Mehmet Yildiz reviewed and assessed viral stories and provide valuable ideas.
Affiliate marketing can be an great opportunity for generating passive income. Our chief editor published a book about affiliate marketing on Medium. It is free for members. You may check the first chapter if digital affiliate marketing is an interest to you: The Power of Digital Affiliate Marketing -Chapter 1: How Authors Can Write More And Earn Passive Income. If you are interested in learning the benefits of affiliate marketing, please check these articles.
What topics and type of stories do you not accept?
We only restrict porn, conspiracy theories, defamation, and other harmful material for society. Medium does not support publishing harmful content, so please check the platform rules. We don’t censor content as long as stories meet Medium policies. We see publications as tools to amplify content. We established several publications appealing to different types of readers.
What are the Illumination Integrated Publications and their purposes?
1 — ILLUMINATION: Our most significant publication is ILLUMINATION. It is visited by over 50,000 unique members daily and gained two million minutes of reading this month. In addition, some stories went viral and brought many new readers. As a generic publication, we accept every ethical topic meeting Medium’s guidelines.
2 — ILLUMINATION’S MIRROR was designed for the requirements of prolific writers who need to submit multiple stories in a day. You can submit several stories to ILLUMINATION’S MIRROR within 24 hours. Please check this article for details: Balancing Load of ILLUMINATION.
3 — ILLUMINATION-Curated was designed for experienced and accomplished writers. Senior editors select the contributors for this publication using stringent criteria. If you are an experienced writer, we allow you to write for this publication upon your request directly. Please find details in this article. You can check some sample stories from this publication in this recent collection.
4 — Technology Hits was designed for writers and readers interested in technical topics, digital entrepreneurship, digital transformation, information technology, artificial intelligence, IoT (the Internet of Things), Cloud computing, quantum computing, tech news, digital economy, blockchain, bitcoin, Nun-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and futuristic topics related to emerging technologies. You can submit science-fiction in this pub. More info about Technology Hits Value Propositions of Technology Hits. Introduction to Technology Hits. Inviting Storytellers From All Aspects of Technology. Here is a collection including some sample stories from this publication.
5 — SYNERGY is a specialized publication servesfreelance writers who want to share writing, blogging, and editing content. It connects writers, editors, and bloggers through their stories. We invite freelance writers from other platforms such as Vocal Media. Here is the purpose of Synergy. Besides, you may find a sample collection to get an idea for the type of stories we publish on Synergy: Engaging Stories on SYNERGY. Here is a collection of sample stories hosted on SYNERGY.
7 — Readers Hope was designed for absolute beginners. You may submit raw content to this new pub. We don’t edit content submitted to Readers Hope. But, our editors provide valuable and helpful guidance via private notes or in our Slack workspace to members. Here is a story introducing the purpose of Readers Hope: What If We can Transform Readers into Micro-Writers. Editors introduced values of Readers Hope. We compiled their perspectives into a single story. Our editors are willing to support new writers to gain experience. Please check their stories. You may contact editors on Slack when you need support. They can help you learn and grow. Here is the Vision and Mission of “Readers Hope”.
You can watch the summary of our publications on YouTube.
Why is YouTube important to your pubs and how can we join it?
We have a new initiative to help our writers to create bios on YouTube. We provided details in the attached article.
Our publications support writers at all levels, aspiring, experienced, accomplished, and influential. All types of contributors are equally important to us. We don’t tolerate toxic behavior. We remove online bullies and report to Medium. However, we always encourage giving and receiving constructive feedback within the platform rules. We encourage new writers to find their voice in a safe and supportive environment. Beginners learn and build skills gradually. Some writers might learn faster. And some may learn slower. Our goal is to create a diverse and inclusive writing and reading group on Medium. All Medium members are welcome to join our writing and publishing journey. We don’t discriminate. Instead, we always support all levels of writers, help them cross-pollinate, and get benefits from the readers of our publications
Do you accept self-published stories?
We accept both draft and self-publish articles. However, we highly recommend draft submissions to gain better exposure from the publication readers. It is your choice. Self-published stories quickly age and sink to the bottom of the front page. If you have curated articles from closed publications, you are welcome to transfer them to ILLUMINATION-Curated. We encourage giving a home for previously distributed stories. Contributors who joined us from PSILY moved their stories and gained new readers on ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Do you recommend your writers to write for other publications?
Our contributors are not exclusive to our pubs. You can join and contribute to other publications. We support your writing and marketing goals as suit your needs. You don’t need to obtain permission to leave. All we care is to follow Medium rules if you want your stories published in our publications. We don’t compete with other publications. Instead, we collaborate with them.
Can we removed our published articles from your publications?
You can remove your articles from our pubs if you need them. You leave our publications. We consider publications as tools for the growth of contributors.
Do you help writers to create their own publications?
Yes. Dr Mehmet Yildiz helped several writers to start their publications. He enjoys promoting them in his social circles. If you are interested in creating your own publications, we may help you promote them.
How can we add our stories to your publications?
It is easy and quick to add articles to publications. To submit your draft or self-published articles to our pubs, you can click on the three (…) dots in the edit mode placed on the top right part of your screen. Select your preferred publication and click on the submit button. When your story is submitted to our publications, editors will review it. If the story meets Medium rules and our guidelines, the editor will publish it.
I am in this list but why cannot I submit to your publications?
If you don’t see our publication on your list, let us know to add your account again by leaving a comment on this post. Glitches happen on publications and our process. We don’t ignore any ethical writer on Medium. Our doors are open to all members who want to serve their readers. We are a catalyst to your success.
Can we repurpose our content on other platforms?
Repurposing your Medium stories on other platforms can be useful. You can earn additional income. For example, you may consider sharing your Medium articles on Vocal Media. You can also join Vocal Media challenges at this link.
6 — You can find ILLUMINATION-related articles and writer resources on ILLUMINATION’s Blog publication.
7 — Please check your private messages sent by our volunteer editors in your stories. You can see private notes on your story checking * sign.
Where do you keep publication related articles?
We host publication-related stories on the ILLUMINATION Blog managed by our chief editor. This pub was created to hold all stories related to ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications. Dr. Mehmet Yildiz keeps a majority of his non-pub-related stories on his personal publication called Euphoria. He can help you create your personal publications and promote them for you if you contact him on Slack workspace.
Do you have guidance on promoting our stories on Social Media?
We established several platforms and social media tools to amplify your stories. Details for each item can be found in this story. You may find useful guides to get you started with our social media tools from the following stories. You may join the ILLUMINATION LinkedIn groupfrom this link. You canpost your article links to the group. If you are published author, Goodreads can be a great place to create visibility. Goodreads is a large platform with millions of members.
We also automatically syndicate links of your stories to several Flipboard magazines using Medium’s RSS service. Here are the links to Flipboard Magazines: such as ILLUMINATION on Medium, ILLUMINATION-Curated, and SYNERGY. We have a writers’ community on Reddit. You can join this community to share links of your stories. We know that Reddit is a useful tool to create further visibility of your content:
The purpose of adding these packs is to give you an opportunity to meet writers who joined our publications. It is impossible to find 13,000 writers in a single list. Medium publications cannot handle such a large number therefore we create workarounds for writers to find other writers easily. It is a tedious task for us but we invest this time to create vitality among writers. We have many packs but add only recent ones to help you start meeting other contributors easily. Here is the list starting from the most recent.
There are more onboarding packs however it is not possible to link all here. We believe these packs can get you started finding accounts of recently joined writers. Members can only follow 150 other members on Medium within 24 hours. You may search for ILLUMINATION and Technology Hits accounts for older versions of our onboarding packs.
Featured Stories by Editors on ILLUMINATION
You may find recently featured stories from this collection.
Thank you for joining ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications.
We look forward to your contributions soon. Please feel free to contact Dr Mehmet Yildiz and other editors on Slack directly when you need help.
Invitation to Potential Contributors
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 point out the publication name with your Medium account ID in the request. We’d appreciate your generosity to share this post with your friends who might be interested in our publications. We are an open and supportive group of writers and readers. New members are welcome to join Medium using the following link. As members, writers can monetize content and readers can read a limitless number of stories.