This significant publication is now 5 years old and thriving despite many setbacks supporting 36K writers and 209K readers on Medium.
Dear subscribers,
In this post we want to share a newsletter posted by Dr Mehmet Yildiz owner of the ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications and Medium and Substack. If you are reader or writer please share you thoughts here or on the Medium newsletter.
Since 2022, this has been the first newsletter we sent from ILLUMINATION because this feature never worked for us. If it works, we will use it. The reason I decided to try it today is that Medium recently added newsletter information to the top of stories, which is good. I will keep this short and not waste my time since this is a trial.
The main purpose is to inform you that ILLUMINATION is now 5 years old. It became a major pub supporting 36K writers and followed by 209K readers. However, it is no longer searchable for unknown reasons, as Dr Broadly articulated recently. I escalated to the support team but they said they did not make any code change. Many people tested, and irrelevant pubs show when readers search it on Medium although it shows #1 in Google.
Each year, we used to celebrate ILLUMINATION’s birthdays with excitement. Many writers used to write stories and poems about it. Some did videos or podcasts. But now, most of them have lost hope, and some editors even deleted their accounts and moved to other platforms.
In January 2025, Medium hit rock bottom, although its leadership denied it, like trying to hide the sun. I had to stop writing for a while until the unfair payment issue was resolved. It was resolved, so I returned to writing as a blogger.
However, I remained optimistic and now see a small glimmer of light that some improvements are happening. However, distribution is still a massive problem, and only a very small number of stories get distributed. The network distribution is a myth, which our tech team with data science expertise debunked after analyzing significant data.
Once, Medium was my main platform — the best, in my view — which is why I established ILLUMINATION there. But now, I personally see Medium as just another blogging site with good domain authority that still has some potential to reach readers, but mainly non-paying members. Anyone expecting to earn substantial money will likely be disappointed. However, it is still good for new writers to gain some readers. Therefore, I keep my publications here to support them.
To lower the load of ILLUMINATION, we created an extra 16 publications integrating them, but it is still not manageable with volunteer editors. Medium is not designed for large publications. And despite their promise in 2021, they did not invest in publications, and the system is still archaic. We had to develop our publishing application to manage the load. For example, it has no sort feature and puts the newest stories to the top. It is impossible for a volunteer editor to go to the bottom from daily around 1000+ drafts accumulated in the backlog.
As I mentioned in 2024, my focus is now on building a larger community on Substack, which is a much more creator-friendly platform with better technology. I started a pilot program called Substack Mastery Boost, and we made significant progress. It helped many writers to start it. Over 250 founding members joined, and some philanthropists have agreed to sponsor it in 2026, when it will become a low-cost education and marketing service for freelance writers.
I wrote two books to jump-start new writers and support advanced ones. The Substack Mastery has become a best-seller read by over 100K freelance writers. I shared chapters of it on Medium. I will soon publish a second version as I gained significant new insights after two of my publications were announced as bestsellers in early March. Aiden also turned my Substack books into the training program called From Zero to Substack Hero and published them on Udemy. He also donated the videos to my
Content Marketing Strategy Insights pub.
My long-term goal after 2026 is to make ILLUMINATION a platform-independent entity with my own funds and the support of sponsors because I no longer trust any platform. No matter how good they are, they can change at any time. Independence is the best approach for survival and growth for any initiative. I have a clear strategy and a solid plan.
I couldn’t send any updates since last November due to some issues on Medium. I will write a longer update on Substack to share our progress and offer some valuable tips for your success. We have many new activities to empower our writers and delight our readers. One quick update is now we have a Illumination Book Club on Substack to support book authors. I briefly introduced it in a story that was not distributed by Medium, so nobody got a chance to read about this important initiative.
Our volunteer editors are exhausted. If you have time and an interest, you are welcome to join our editorial team as a volunteer editor. We have now 179 volunteers. But Medium only allows us 30 volunteers which makes no sense. So I need to frequently change them as 30 editors are overwhelmed to support this gigantic pub.
Thank you for joining our joyful and exciting journey. Keep shining and keep illuminating society 🌟
P.S. If you are a new writer, please read our master onboarding pack to understand our rules and adhere to platform policies. It has links to submission guidelines and policies. Recently, some writers have been sending copy-and-paste text from the web or AI tools, which our readers will never read. Our volunteer editors return them. It is a waste of time. Please write from the heart and do not worry about perfect language. We are not perfectionists.
If you missed here are the links to the updated submission guidelines:
ILLUMINATION, Curated Newsletters, SYNERGY (Newsletter Booster), Technology Hits, Health and Science, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Readers Hope, Magnetic Newsletter Pro, and Substack Mastery Boost.
If you are a writer, you are welcome to join my publications by sending a request via this link. I support 36K writers who contribute to my publications on this platform. You can contact me via my website. If you are a new writer, you might check out my writing list to find some helpful stories for your education.
If you are interested in developing your cognitive performance, mental health, and brain function, I authored a new book close to my heart. It can be life-changing for some, as the info in it changed my life positively. It is 405 pages distilled from thousands of pages of research manuscripts. I introduced it in a story.
I invite you to join my newsletters, where I offer experience-based content on health, content strategy, and technology topics to inform and inspire my readers.
Get an email whenever Dr Mehmet Yildiz publishes. He is a top writer and editor on Medium. dr-mehmet-yildiz.medium.com
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