Purpose of this Educational Resource for Beginners
In this post, after a warm welcome, our volunteer editor and media coordinator, Aiden, will inform you about the acceptance of your application to ILLUMINATION pubs. He linked your profile names to notify you, as there is no other way to inform you. If you applied and your name is not there, it might have been misspelled, or it went to your spam folder. Please apply again or leave a message on this post.
Apart from introducing you to our readers and writers, Aiden will give you a few practical tips to get you started quickly so that you can share your best stories with our audience.
He linked your profiles to the end of this post so interested readers can follow you and explore your stories. Our goal is to feature your profiles and promote your content for visibility.
Adding new writers keeps us very busy. This is a very tedious and manual task, and nobody wants to do it, so it ended up with Aiden lately. We wish Medium would automate this task like Substack or Slack, allowing interested writers to join with just one click.
Let’s welcome writers who joined our publications today. This is an excellent opportunity to explore the stories of these writers and follow them if their content resonates with you.
I hope this post finds you well. First of all, welcome to our writing and reading community. Nice to meet you all. Thank you for joining our supportive ILLUMINATION community!
This is Aiden. I’m a volunteer editor, content curator, and media coordinator of ILLUMINATION publications. I enjoy helping, welcoming, and adding new writers to our pubs, so you can start submitting stories soon. I also own two pubs, Gaming and Videos/Podcasts topics.
Finally the advanced version of my course published today and Dr Yildiz kindly introduced it in a story for beta students giving them 85% discount. You can read it here:
I started my curated collections again and will introduce you to our readers tomorrow. I completed 300+ collections. Here is the latest version of the Look What Aiden Found series:
Our senior editor Dr Mike Broadly, DHSc has also started curating stories and presents them as part of his nostalgia series. He sent his first post after so many months. It is a must read collection ❤️Like me he also introduces new writers for further support from our community.
Please review the onboarding pack before sending your first draft
We updated the onboarding pack. It answers frequently asked questions by beginners about our 17 publications, including ILLUMINATION. Please review it before sending your first drafts to any of our publications.
We made some changes, which are reflected in our submission guidelines. Please check out our newsletter for updates. We will post a new one soon, hopefully tomorrow.
Links to Updated Submission Guidelines for Major Publications
Please review these guidelines if you submit your drafts to any of these publications. They include essential information and guidance.
We provide some valuable sources in this post. You don’t need to read all of them, but save this story to find them when needed. We link the profiles of writers joining us today at the end of this collection so you can connect with each other meaningfully.
Let me give you some quick tips to start publishing with us:
After reviewing the publication guidelines, you are ready to contribute to our pubs.
You may start submitting your best stories. Please send only one story per publication daily. We only accept drafts. Due to the large number of our writers, we can publish only one story per writer daily.
We also have several other pubs, so you can send one to each relevant pub. ILLUMINATION now supports 38000+ writers with only 30 volunteer editors, and unfortunately, Medium does not allow us to add more editors despite our 187 volunteers.
ILLUMINATION publications comprise diverse, inclusive, supportive, and collaborative volunteer 186 editors, writers, and 256K+ readers. We support every ethical writer who wants to delight their readers.
If you write meaningful and engaging stories, we will publish and promote them, help you build your audience using our large community, and increase your income through meaningful engagement with our readers and writers. We make everything easy for you.
Policy Documents
Every writer contributing to our publications must review these guiding policies before submitting their stories. We are tolerant, but these are non-negotiable rules.
We introduced an initiative called Friends of ILLUMINATION, which is similar to Friends of Medium but free. You are all welcome to join us on this exciting journey. As volunteer editors and curators ,we try to create vibrancy on this platform. The reading and engagement rates are low.
ILLUMINATION Health & Wellness Network on Substack
We now have ILLUMINATION Health & Wellness Network to support the community. If you are on these topics please feel free to join us. It will be a fantastic group to stay healthy and happy by supporting each other. More info is in this bulletin:
This unique community publication became a best-selling in March. We are grateful that our health and wellness network is growing to educate and inspire many readers.
If you are planning to become a book author, we have a publication called Illumination Book Chapters and also a book club on Substack. You are welcome to join them.
Soon we will be starting our first public publication on Substack. It is called Illumination Writing Academy to curate outstanding stories. Applications might be done through this site. Here’s a background story about it.
We invite you to focus on your platforms rather than borrowed ones and use them only as stepping stones as Dr Yildiz articulated in a recent newsletter.
Now let’s get back to publishing business as usual. Despite all this drama, I continue adding writers as I keep my optimism.
Helpful Guide for Beginners in 4 Steps
The following are the most frequently asked by beginners. If you are on Medium for a long time, you may skip some points in the following sections.
1 — How to submit your stories to publications
Now that you have joined Medium and written your first story, Please follow these simple instructions. Once you do it a few times, it will be second nature. Not knowing this feature caused many new writers to wait for days.
After drafting your story, when it is ready to submit, please click on the … (3 dots) on the top right side of your screen. Click on the add to publication, choose Illumination or other relevant pubs, and submit your story. When the story arrives in the publication queue, editors will review and publish it if your story qualifies. If not, they will leave a private message and return your story to fix, resubmit, or transfer to one of our other publications if it does not suit ILLUMINATION.
We no longer publish certain types of stories on ILLUMINATION and ILLUMINATION-Curated, so please review the new submission guidelines.
2 — Use Copyright-Free Images and Caption Them
A crucial issue is that some new writers forget to add captions to photos and use copyrighted images. Violating copyright rules can lead to substantial penalties imposed by legal institutions.
Several writers got hefty fines; our editors don’t want this to happen to you. Therefore, our editors are diligently working to safeguard our writers. We kindly ask that you honor their requests, as they have your best interests at heart. You cannot use every image on stories behind the paywall.
If you are a new writer on Medium, please review the Photo Handling Policy before starting, as it is the most time-consuming issue for our editors and causes delays in publishing. Writers failing to meet our photo handling policy will be removed from publications.
3 — What is Slack or Discord, and why should our writers join these groups?
Slack is a collaboration and communication tool. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, Slack is a private tool. Therefore, it is not just another social media platform. We use Slack because Medium lacks a chat tool, making it challenging to communicate with writers, editors, and publication owners to address issues.
For instance, when your stories encounter problems or you have questions for our team, you can easily access our editors and moderators, who can help resolve your concerns. Our Slack is free and moderated, with over 24,000 members. Unfortunately, around 7,000 writers miss this opportunity, not understanding its value. You can join here. [updated on 25/1/25]
Additionally, you can share links to your story and get more views. Joining our group can provide numerous benefits. It is a valuable tool for building your audience easily. Furthermore, it is configurable; for example, you can turn notifications off if you prefer not to receive notifications. You can learn more about Slack from this story.
4 — We don’t publish AI-generated content per Medium’s new direction except for one dedicated publication [The Lampshade of ILLUMINATION]
Our publications do not accept content written by artificial intelligence tools, but we have a viable solution to make writers and readers happy.
Those writers who use generative AI tools like Jasper, Gemini, DeepSeek, or ChatGPT can send their stories to our publication, the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION. Details are attached.
Medium-Substack Integration Initiative to Support Freelance Writers
We are now building a bigger community on Substack that is similar to Medium. We have three major Substack sites serving different purposes. We link them here as a reference. When we post, you may get newsletters on different topics. If you don’t want to receive newsletters, you can easily unsubscribe. All our sites and services are optional.
We now have a 3-tier service to support creators, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, which will be announced in upcoming newsletters. Here is a link to the draft.
Mike Broadly, DHSc our senior editor and the founding member of the Substack Mastery Boost program wrote an inspiring story with an invitation. You may check out his story to be informed and inspired!
As part of the Substack Boost, Dr Yildiz have a new initiative for our writers to create their online stores to sell their articles, books, or other digital products. This is very exciting. He did a proof of concept and shared a new story for us. It can inspire you so I am linking it here.
We have an empowering publication for freelancers on Substack. We renamed ILLUMINATION-Curated to Curated Newsletters to support experienced writers in this exciting journey. ILLUMINATION-Curators featured some great Substack newsletters today. If you want your newsletters to be featured, please leave a comment on the collections so our curators can review and feature them both on Medium and Substack.
If you consider joining Substack and ready to start this exciting education program, here’s your chances with the lowest possible fees and highest possible discounts for August.
If you are interested in growing your audience on Substack, our chief editor posted several chapters earlier and will add more. Here are the links to available chapters:
Talking of Substack, we published the first curated story in our first public publication on that platform. It replaces the good old ILLUMINATION-Curated, which we chose to close off. You can read this inaugural story on Medium, too.
As the quality of content is our priority now, we updated our submission guidelines as listed below. The changes are reflected in our new submission guidelines, which are linked below. Please review the submission guidelines for the publications you contribute to.
If you are a freelancer or ambitious writer, watch your stress and prevent burnout. Dr Yildiz shared a chapter of his new book, Subtack Mastery Version 2 for Advanced Writers, and he said burnout was widespread and like an elephant in the room, especially on Substack. Here is the link to his story:
Dr. Yildiz is a prolific author. He wrote a book, published on 1st January 20025 to help us understanding this stress hormone. I found it very helpful and wrote a review story about my progress losing significant visceral fat.
There were lots of invalid IDs, either misspelled or something else. If you don’t provide the correct Medium ID, our admins cannot give you access to our pubs. If you also don’t give the correct email access, you cannot join our Slack and miss a great opportunity.
Many thanks to Sylvain Zyssman for kindly helping us add new writers. He is our technical expert. You can learn about his background from this interview.
Invitation to Be a Guest Blogger for Creating Visibility for Your Content and Profile
Our chief editor, Dr Yildiz, kindly opened his website to welcome all writers as guest bloggers, offering a platform to boost visibility for your profiles, Medium stories, Substack newsletters, books, training programs, or anything else. Guest blogging, with little effort, giving backlinks to your content can take your writing to another level. He has outlined the compelling reasons to join our community blog in detail, making it an ideal space for authentic and ethical writers who want to share their work freely.
You will receive an invitation to our Slack workspace to collaborate with other writers, share your story links, and contact editors and our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz. It is a free and moderated service.
Our chief editor conducts interviews with writers to introduce them to his audience. He also shares them on Substack and his social media sites. If you are interested, you can contact him via this inquiry form.
Invitation to our YouTube Channel and Blogging Site
As the media coordinator of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium and Substack and also the owner of the Videos/Podcasts publication, I want to share this exciting opportunity with you. If you’re passionate about expanding your reach and connecting more deeply with your audience, then our YouTube channel might just be the tool you’ve been looking for.
This community channel will allow you to directly publish videos that promote your Medium stories and especially Substack newsletters, adding a dynamic layer to your content marketing strategy.
My Substack mentors, including Dr Mehmet Yildiz (Newsletter) who wrote a book about it titled Substack Mastery, told me that YouTube has the highest conversion rate for paid subscribers on Substack. Therefore, we decided to offer this service as part of our 3-tier subscription model for creators, freelancers, and content entrepreneurs.
Sharing Your Links of Your Stories, Newsletters, Blog Posts
Dr Yildiz created easy to use tools to share your Medium stories, Substack newsletters, Notes, and blog posts. They are all free for our writers. You can find the links in his latest story:
Our YouTube channel is not just a place to upload videos. This channel is a community where authentic voices illuminate the platforms and shine. By sharing your content here, you amplify your work and contribute to a collective mission of ethical storytelling and education.
We’re committed to publishing only ethical content that aligns with YouTube’s guidelines, ensuring that this platform remains a safe and positive space for all creators and viewers. We don’t publish harmful content. Videos you upload must belong to you, or you need to obtain approval from their creators.
Video content is a powerful medium that can enhance your written work, offering a new way to engage with your readers. Whether you’re sharing insights about your latest Medium story, giving a sneak peek of your Substack newsletter, or discussing your creative process, videos allow you to connect with your audience on a more personal level.
Plus, with the rising popularity of video content, this is a chance to tap into a broader audience and potentially increase your income through more visibility and interaction.
YouTubers serve millions of subscribers. We will also grow our channel and reach a broad audience globally.
You can apply to get a manager access to our channel by filling this form which we also use for bloggers. By filling this form you can be both a blogger on our website and YouTube contributor of ILLUMINATION Substack Mastery.
I’d like to introduce inspiring videos by one of our great writers Mike Corazza. Mike had a heart issue a few years ago and experienced NDE. Interestingly, Dr Yildiz wrote an inspiring story about Mike today. The story gave me goosebumps.
Mike is very diligent about health and wellness so you can learn from his vast experience. He posted this video to our channel but he also created a new channel so you can subscribe to it.
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Here is another fantastic video from Mike which can guide you:
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If you are a YouTuber you are welcome to join our channel. I can make you a manager so you can post your teaser videos to gain new subscribers from our community.
Update on Pay Issues
Currently, Medium is in a bit of crisis mode. But we still continue publishing and supporting our writers. It looks like Medium is working on some solutions. Here is a story that might give you an idea of what is happening on Medium recently. But some writers said it is getting better.
Medium looks like in a mess now but most of us keep writing hoping one day readers might find our stories. Now even writers and readers cannot search some publications on the platform. This doesn’t make any sense. Our senior editor Mike Broadly, DHSc wrote am honest story about it today.
Invitation to ILLUMINATION on Substack Publication on Medium
This new pub on Medium is a good opportunity for Substack writers struggling to find subscribers. We aim to bridge two platforms to give you benefits from both as they offer different services to writers and readers. Invitation: ILLUMINATION Curators on Substack Publication on Medium
Here’s why every writer needs a newsletter and owns their content and audience. We would appreciate your support of our Substack newsletters to create a priority service. We will also hire a marketing professional with funds to do the marketing tasks for freelance writers.
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I invite you to subscribe to my publications on Substack, where I offer experience-based and original content on health, content strategy, book authoring, and technology topics you can’t find online to inform and inspire my readers.
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