ILLUMINATION’s next chapter
The moment has arrived. It’s time for a change. New direction, new focus. Time for moving to Substack. Time to go beyond.
Here’s my story
Several years ago I was running a blog. Erotica, reviews, travel stories, chit-chat. It was fun but it wasn’t bringing in many readers or money. The odd sale on Amazon of one of my saucy travel stories but to be honest, most of those came when I dropped the price to zero for a promotion.
Then I discovered Medium. I began writing the same sort of stories, receiving offers from editors to publish and after a while I was invited to contribute to ILLUMINATION by Dr Mehmet Yildiz. A new publication, it gave everybody a chance, aiming to help new writers gain traction, gain readers, gain income.
I was soon offered a chance to be an editor, so I was on the inside watching as a small publication went big and spun off a dozen specialist publications. There were tens of thousands of writers, hundreds of thousands of stories, millions of views.
It was an incredible experience and I admired the constant dedication, energy, and leadership of Dr Mehmet.
With the pandemic, my travel industry job took a plummet and I had time to devote to writing and editing.
I made hundreds of dollars with one story and doubled that when I moved it to a new publication called ILLUMINATION-Curated, where we gathered selected stories and writers.
The glory fades
It will come as no surprise when I say that Medium has changed and not for the better.
Established writers noticed their numbers dropping. Readers and dollars were down. Odd things were happening. What was once a dependable – and great! – platform for writers and readers alike was turning into a flea market in a formerly upscale galleria.
My theory is that on a platform where likes, reads, and comments determined how much a writer was paid, the system was open to gaming, with accounts springing up to write stories – once plagiarised, later written by AI – and others to interact fraudulently. Medium tried to deal with the ever-increasing problem and somewhere along the way lost sight of authentic writers and readers.
The underlying system still works, kind of, with readers subscribed to their favourites but it’s becoming increasingly hard to find writers worth reading. A lot of the most heavily-promoted stories are clickbait or AI content or otherwise thin, shallow reading. One fine piece of detective work here.
Alternatives arise
Vocal, Newsbreak, Substack all offered alternative publishing platforms, each with their own pros and cons.
Dr Mehmet, ever keen to publish or promote on as many platforms as possible, was quick off the mark in moving to Substack and came to recommend its merits.
As a writing platform, I enjoy it. For earning income, writers must rely on subscribers who pay money directly.
At a stroke, this model eliminates the gamification that crippled Medium. Writers must produce content that readers want to read and keep reading, and readers have to pay the writers for premium content.
It seems to work. Some writers are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most writers earn far less but the potential is always there to develop and and expand the reading audience.
Perhaps most importantly, few – if any – readers are going to take out paid subscriptions to writers whose work consists of AI-written fluff or clickbait disappointment. Those writers aren’t going to flourish on Substack.
Our ILLUMINATION community has a guide, an explorer, a leader
Dr Yildiz has been a member of Substack since 2020, long before most of us had even heard of it. Here’s his first post there.
As you can see, he was using Substack to promote Medium, where he was growing the ILLUMINATION community.
So, in the four years since, he has gained the experience, the knowledge, the facts. He knows what he is talking about. He’s keen to share.
What better proof do you need than the fact that he has written a book, already popular on Amazon on pre-order, and is sharing the knowledge in a series of draft chapters for free.
A time of change: moving to Substack and other platforms
As we negotiate the changing environment for writers it’s good to have a guide we can trust to share experience, insights, advice. Dr Mehmet has been doing this for years, helping writers grow on Medium and other platforms. He is a known quantity and his results speak for themselves in the amazing growth of the ILLUMINATION family.
It’s important to note that he is not advocating a total withdrawal from Medium. I’m still there, as a writer earning money and gaining exposure, and an editor helping to keep ILLUMINATION going.
I’m posting on a new publication about my own Substack experience, one of many writers sharing their news and views of the new world.
TL;DR: I’m enjoying it!
What’s on offer
First off, our Medium publications aren’t going away. Some of them have been rebranded, some have changed focus. If you are a writer – or an editor – for a publication, you’re still on the list.
We have various social media and other content sites among them Facebook, Quora, and Linkedin. A Slack workspace with many subforums.
ILLUMINATION writers are welcome in these spaces.
Substack is a place where we have a presence but by its nature it is a place where a writer creates their own publication(s) and controls their own mailing list, not to mention their own revenue stream.
We can help with advice and promotion but I doubt that we’ll be running any sort of group newsletter with hundreds of writers.
What we will be doing is offering positions on a shared WordPress blogging site. This has been done before and very successfully – think Huffington Post – where writers can post their own material with the support of an administrative staff. The advantage is that a writer effectively has their own blog but the benefits of a far higher Domain Authority than they could achieve on their own.
A good blog site can be used to funnel traffic and links to Medium publications and Substack newsletters.
We’ll also be in a position to offer substantial promotion and boost opportunities. Genuine promotion to get your work before a wider audience, using clear and effective processes.
Here’s how it works
There are three levels of writers identified:
- Creators: those who write for personal satisfaction. They want to share their words with others. They don’t expect to make a lot of money, if any.
- Freelancers: those creators who earn steady income on paid platforms, have side hustles in publishing e-books, affiliate sales, writing courses etc.
- Entrepreneurs: Freelancers who scale their business and aim for the stars.
We will serve each level according to their needs, through publishing and promotion. Each participating creator can expect to receive more in return – even the free level – than they put in.
Here’s a post outlining the model in more detail.
The essential point is that we are a community – always have been, always will be – focused on support and growth.
My experience in moving to Substack
I’ve been active on Substack for precisely three weeks now. I was jolted out of my attachment to Medium when Dr Mehmet started making some surprising changes to the ILLUMINATION publications, especially ILLUMINATION-Curated, where I happen to be a senior editor.
Gosh, things were happening!
I opened my eyes, took a good hard look at where Medium was going – downhill – and what the plan was to turn our community around.
I have a stake in this. I’ve been active on Medium for some years, I’ve made good money from my writing, I’ve enjoyed being part of the editorial team, and I’ve helped – and been helped – by others in the network.
I’m at the Freelancer level. It’s my comfort zone.
My complacency zone.
I’m ready to take the next step, turn my writing into a business, learn from the masters about SEO, networking, synergy and growth.
I’ve recently turned forty, I’m not getting any younger, time to quit playing and begin being the serious writer I’ve always wanted to be.
I signed up for a Founding member – Entrepreneur level – subscription to one of the qualifying newsletters.
Here’s why
- I felt that the comparatively modest fee would give me a solid return on investment through exposure, promotion, and perhaps most of all, through gaining higher-level skills.
- The community is being run as a charity. My subscription fee would go toward helping boost those on the free level. I cannot over-emphasise how important this is to me. Watching writers develop and become more confident in their craft is a delight; I also get to read their writing.
- I’ve been a part of the ILLUMINATION family for several years now. I’ve learned to trust the leadership of Dr Mehmet Yildid. He works tirelessly, he doesn’t give up, he sets rules and follows them. He is a model of dependability and he and his creation have given me a good income over the years, together with a sense of purpose and pride.
I’ve linked the strategy document above – here it is again – and all it takes is a subscription, whether free or paid, to one of three publications to begin the journey:
- Substack Mastery of ILLUMINATION Community
- Content Strategy, Development and Marketing Insights
- Freelancer library on Substack
You can be moving to Substack and joining our community without spending a cent. You will immediately see the benefits, even if it’s nothing more than reading Dr Mehmet’s book on Substack Mastery in draft form. Right now.
Won’t you join me?
Related to my story, another storyteller, Dr Michael Broadly, articulated this exciting journey on his own words.
For new members who want to be part of this journey, Dr Mehmet Yildiz documented it at his site and invited every storyteller who wanted to join this journey.
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