ILLUMINATION Writers Content Strategy

One of the most valuable traits of writers is their creativity.

I worked with many professional from different backgrounds in different organizations, but my favorite group of professionals so far have been writers.

Dealing with creative writers is one of the reasons that I don't see managing our publication as work or chore but more of a hobby. I enjoy reading every article, learning something new from them, and gaining new perspectives. Working with writers is an invaluable experience for me.

As mentioned in my previous articles, our readers commented on the creativity of our writers as their strength. This feedback from readers meant a lot to me and honored me. Their feedback validated my views about our writers. Considering this recognized and approved capability of our writers, I think we need to leverage our creativity for our growth.

Whenever I have a conversation with our writers on our Slack channel, via email or other means, they come up with new ideas for improving our community. Everyone has something interesting and useful to say and to share. More importantly, the ideas are accepted and acted upon swiftly. Our writers are not only creative but also action-oriented. Creativity, coupled with action, is a scarce skill which a prerequisite to be an entrepreneur.

I don't care what others think, but our writers need to leverage entrepreneurial skills for their growth and successful writing career. Our writers deserve success for their efforts.

Yes, it has been proven that a person can be creative and entrepreneurial at the same time. Both are essential for sustainable success.

In my view, creativity and entrepreneurship are like yin and yang.

We are in an advantaged position in our community. It was impressive to see the writers exchanging ideas to improve their articles and create visibility on our Slack channel. They even created a shameless self promotion channel. How creative is that!

As of today, we have 105 writers joined the Slack channel. Each writer brings a new perspective. There is never boring moments in our Slack channel. This community spirit is a wonderful by-product of our publication values.

Some experienced Medium writers introduce us new features that some of us have no clue. Some introduce new writers, new articles, new ideas, new resources. Our Slack channel is like an 'ideation lab' creating constant innovation every day. Frankly, I was not expecting the innovative aspect would pick up so quickly. There is something special and magical about our writers. I don't know what it is yet. Big possibility their creativity!

My key message is let's use our creativity, fed by synergy, for our growth and success. Some of us use humor to convey a message, some of us a serious approach, some conversational, and some philosophical ways. These variety of approaches are invaluable for creating a fusion culture.

Overall, everyone respects each other and acts professionally. No one judges another one because of their different thoughts and ideas. Everyone is producing in harmony and extending capabilities.

Now that we established our foundations, let's stretch a little more and use our creativity to increase our capacity. The bigger our capacity gets, the larger we can scale, and the better we can perform. I have proven this theory in my technical design and architectural work. It works!

Let me throw you a new challenge

I recommend each writer to browse the topics on Medium.

Click on this link to find the topics. There are so many of them.

Each of you can find a topic which can be interest to you.

The articles in these topics are selected and distributed by thirty something Medium curators whom we don't know who they are. But we are assured that they relentlessly check thousands of articles each day and select some of them to showcase Medium to their subscribed readers. The rest of the articles are not even seen by the subscribed Medium users and those beautiful articles sink to the bottom of well each day and are forgotten. Except for the articles created in ILLUMINATION as they are actively promoted by various means.

Before diverging, my recommendation is to find at least ten curated articles in your interest areas which were not submitted to the publications. Some of the curated writers are new and have no idea about Medium publications. Probably they never heard about ILLUMINATION either. You have an opportunity.

This is where your entrepreneurial skills are needed.

Read your selected articles, clap them, highlight them and leave a brief message. This approach is requisite for every reasonable reader to benefit from this content platform. But I want you to go one step ahead using your creativity and entrepreneurial skills.

I recommend you to leave a brief private message to the writer on the article inviting them to a possible interview to discuss their article to be featured in an article by you on a publication called ILLUMINATION which strives for variety and diversity of content. You can provide a testimonial on the success of our publication and how we create visibility for our content. Several writers shared their experience about ILLUMINATION in the last three weeks.

You can ask your target writers politely whether they are interested in a written interview and to be featured if you provide them with a few prompting questions. You can provide them with your contact details and share the draft of your article with them before publishing.

When you write your article featuring this curated writer, you can tag them in your article which you publish on ILLUMINATION. You can also invite them to join our publication as a writer to collaborate with 240+ writers in a community. We are a strong writers community now and we can leverage this capability to promote our position.

This activity not only can improve your writing skills but also can help you extend your network. Best of all, if you do this for five to ten times, you may notice a fantastic improvement in your creative and entrepreneurial skills.

These new skills will certainly re-wire your brain for sustained success. You will diminish your anxiety and fear. You will learn how to deal with rejections, if some reject. It is natural. I can assure you, most of the reasonable writers you approach will be interested and honored by your approach.

This is an idea for you. It is up to you to extend it, customize it, and act on it. This challenge, taken by each of us, not only can help each individual but also can make a ripple effect and help our community tremendously. I won't go into the details of the benefits as you can guess from the nature of the activity.

All you need to do is marry your creativity with your entrepreneurial skills and manifest something important for your growth and success. The stronger each writer gets, the stronger our community can get. Each writer constitutes a healthy cell of the community.

A quick snapshot of publication stats today

119,332 minutes of read

123,144 views

2330 followers

1,232 new visitors

247 writers

48 editors — content curators

1400+ articles submitted

Featured article for today

Each day we feature an article.

Our editors selected an article from Charles Roast who is one of the most engaging and contributing members of our community. In addition, Chuck boosts the morale of the community with his unique sense of humor.

Check his article how smart he is even though he sometimes pretends dumb to make people laugh and take their attention to the core matters. Our aim is to make this article go viral so let's support Chuck as much as possible.

Introductions

Meet Willem-Jan Ageling from his creative pen

Meet Kira Dawn from her creative pen

Distributed Articles to Medium Topics

Three fascinating articles from our ILLUMINATION were distributed to various topics on Medium.

Vaccines Now, Safety Later: The Utilitarian Ethics of Rushing by Brian E. Wish, PhD distributed to #philosophy #economy #politics #coronavirus #health

This is the first article distributed to five different topics in our publication. Many thanks Brian for writing for topics which matter for our society, for informing us, and creating visibility for us.

8 Ways to Develop a Healthy Body Image by George J. Ziogas distributed #lifestyle #beauty [Another Premier honored us]

How The Choices You Make Could Help You to Remain Upbeat During a Difficult Time by Madoc Maduka distributed to #self [Yet another premier blew my mind]

Our Distributed List Today

Please read and support as many articles as you can. Share in every possible avenue. Let's amplify our content and reach out to bigger audience each day.

Invitation to new writers

If you want to join our growing and supportive community as a writer, please leave a message on our FAQ document. We are a writers' community. We curate and amplify valuable content for creating awareness and visibility to extended audiences.

Connect with ILLUMINATION editors and writers

You can connect our editors and writers by clicking on their Medium accounts provided below. By following them you can access their materials easier. Our community of writers know importance of reciprocity hence they can follow you back to create synergy.