Chapter 1: Monthly Highlights

In April 2024, the ILLUMINATION editorial team shares key updates and future plans aimed at our community of writers, readers, and editors. For those outside our membership, a summary is available on our Substack or through a shared link on Medium. Our publications strive to be diverse and inclusive, and new applications for membership can be submitted via the writer registration portal. Remember to include your Medium ID or a link to your work, as detailed in our onboarding pack.

Dear writers and readers,

Happy April! I'm reaching out from my secondary account, primarily used for publishing and curating content, particularly for Technology Hits. For those unfamiliar with me, my main account is Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, the owner and chief editor of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium.

I decided to take on the responsibility of this newsletter to ease the workload on our volunteer editors and administrators, who are already stretched thin with their publishing and curation tasks. In recent months, Aiden (from Illumination Gaming) assisted us in compiling updates, but he is currently occupied with curatorial duties, nominations, publishing, media coordination, and managing our Slack workspace.

Last month marked the 4th anniversary of ILLUMINATION, celebrated with a wonderful piece by Mike Broadly, DHSc. I founded ILLUMINATION on March 19, 2020, as a modest publication, which has since grown into a significant resource on Medium, supported by 28,841 writers.

Since March 19, we have welcomed 892 new writers into our community, successfully onboarding them and granting access to our Slack workspace, thanks to the efforts of our volunteer administrators, editors, and moderators. This onboarding process is labor-intensive, requiring considerable time and dedication from our volunteers, who generously contribute their time to maintain this vibrant reading and writing community.

We aim to assist every genuine and ethical writer, particularly those just starting, in rapidly building their audience through our extensive community. With the backing of numerous writers, our goal is to delight our loyal readers and foster the growth of Medium, a fantastic platform for all of us.

Chapter 2: Volunteer Efforts and Community Growth

As the owner and chief editor, my responsibilities extend beyond simply managing our 151 volunteer editors. Since our publications do not generate income, I also engage in daily support activities that consume a considerable amount of my time. For instance, I currently have thousands of unread emails and Slack messages awaiting my attention. Given my workload, responding promptly to these inquiries is often impossible.

If you don’t hear back from me within 24 to 48 hours, please feel free to reach out to my volunteer backups: Aiden, Mike Broadly, DHSc, Lawson Wallace, K. Joseph, The Sturg, and InYah. They have kindly volunteered to address urgent inquiries in my absence. Please understand that if you don’t receive a response, it may simply be due to my inability to check your message. I value every writer and strive to respond, but the volume of inquiries can be overwhelming, and sometimes I only see messages weeks later.

Chapter 3: New Publication Launch

As I have received numerous inquiries from writers wishing to join my personal publication, EUPHORIA, where I focus on health and science topics, our editor Mike Broadly, DHSc, has decided to launch a new publication dedicated to these areas as part of ILLUMINATION. Mike has created the submission guidelines, and we already have two boosted stories in this new publication. We look forward to nominating and curating outstanding stories from this exciting new venture.

Chapter 4: Updates on ILLUMINATION Statistics

All statistics have improved this month, reflecting our progress over the last 90 days. Below are the highlights:

• Reading times increased from 7.4 million to 7.8 million minutes.
• Views rose from 6.1 million to 6.2 million.
• The average number of unique daily visitors grew from 53.5K to 53.8K.
• ILLUMINATION gained 1,386 new followers.
• Since last month, 892 new writers have registered in our portal.
• Our Slack workspace welcomed an additional 646 members, bringing our total to over 21,000.

Chapter 5: Future Plans and Community Support

As the demands on our team continue to rise, I am exploring options for funding to hire at least one full-time administrator to help manage the workload. I also want to involve our community in supporting our Substack subscription library, particularly from those who benefit from our free services.

I invite those who can contribute to pledge to our ILLUMINATION Library or Writing Academy on Substack to help maintain our free services and support our community's sustainability. More information about this initiative will follow in upcoming communications.