Hello Reader!

It doesn’t matter how good a writer/strategist/editor/marketer you are, if the client can’t count on you, they’re gonna look for someone else.

Clients remember the person who delivers on time, communicates clearly, and makes their life easier, not the one who turns in genius-level work three days late or disappears mid-project.

I get it.

Life gets busy. Freelancers are a one-man band with multiple clients.

It’s freakin' hard to juggle it all. Afterall:

• What if you get sick?
• What if your kid gets sick?
• What if your parents need to go to an appointment and you’re the only one on call?
• What if you're just bummed out that day? (Happens to us all)

Sadly, it doesn’t matter. Clients care about one thing: good quality work delivered on time.

I’ve been doing this for 15+ years. Yes, in my early career, I missed some deadlines. Yes, those clients fired me. Yes, it was the worst.

That’s when I developed a system so that it never happened again.

Here’s what I like to call…

The Reliable Freelancer System

How to deliver on time, every time (even when life happens).

1. Plan Your Month Before It Starts

• Do a monthly planning session in the last week of each month.
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• Review current projects, new leads, and retainer work. I use Moxie (affiliate) to manage my clients and send my invoices. Harlow is another great tool.
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• Give clients a clear submission deadline for next month's work: “If we want to publish in March, I’ll need final topics by February 25.”

2. Frontload Your Work

• Schedule your heaviest workload in the first two weeks of the month.
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• Aim to complete 60–70% of deliverables early so you have breathing room if something pops up later.

3. Move Your Due Dates Up 2–3 Days

• Internally, mark your deadlines earlier than the client’s. I use good ol' Google Calendar for this. If it's not on my phone, it's not in my brain. So important stuff always goes in my phone calendar.
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• This built-in buffer gives you a safety net when life gets chaotic.

4. Set an “Interview & Research Day”

• Block one full day at the start of each month to collect quotes, conduct interviews, and request data.
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• I also use Calendly to book these interviews. That way, every meeting goes into your work calendar, and you don't forget about it.

5. Protect Time for Admin + Chaos

• Schedule a few days off per month with no deliverables. Use it as a catch-up day or brain break when burnout creeps in.
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• Add buffer days around known events (school breaks, appointments, travel).

6. Automate Scheduling + Boundaries

• Use Calendly (or similar) to control your availability for calls.
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• Restrict meetings to specific windows (e.g., Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11–3.)
• Add buffer time before and after calls to transition between tasks.

7. Plan Tasks + Due Dates in a Project Tool

• Use Monday (another affiliate) or Trello to map out all client work for the month. I use both platforms for different purposes. But I like the Kanban system for my personal content processes. I have a column for every part of the writing process (see above) and just drag the assignment through each phase as I go.
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• Add every deliverable with sub-tasks for outline, draft, edit, and final delivery.
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• Integrate it with your Google Calendar (or preferred calendar) so you get automatic reminders and notifications before deadlines.
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• Color-code by client or project so you can instantly see what’s due when.

9. Communicate Proactively

• Send short check-ins like: “Hey [Client], here’s what’s in motion this week + what’s coming next.”
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• It shows reliability and keeps you top of mind.

9. Build in “Oh Crap” Protocols

If you’re running behind:

• Notify your client as soon as possible (ideally 48+ hours in advance).
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• Offer a revised timeline and take ownership.
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• Never ghost. Silence kills trust faster than lateness.
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Bonus Tips

• Batch similar tasks (research days, writing days, admin days).
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• Deliver early at least once per client—it builds goodwill fast.
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• Keep one “overview calendar” for all clients to spot conflicts.
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Once a quarter, schedule a systems cleanup day to update templates, tools, and trackers., sign up, enjoy!

Here's a little challenge: Get organized so you can guarantee you'll never miss a deadline. Try out Moxie and Monday to get your ish together. The content professional who delivers work on time is ALWAYS going to get hired.

Thanks,

Ashley

Partner

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Expert Interview | Althea Storm

1/ How did your career in content marketing begin, and what inspired you to specialize in B2B and SaaS writing?

I wrote my first short play when I was eight years old, and since then, I’ve always written something, be it plays, short stories, long stories, or poems. But writing didn’t become a career until much later.

I didn’t grow up with much, and when I graduated high school at 15, I became responsible for taking care of my family: my elderly, sick mother, my younger brother, and myself. I didn’t have a college certificate, and the physical jobs available paid around $37–40 a month, which wasn’t enough. I got a partial university scholarship, but I couldn’t attend university because I was my mum’s caregiver, so I had to figure out how to earn a living from home.

I tried blogging, surveys, and transcription, but nothing stuck. Then one day it hit me: I’m a writer. Maybe I can make some money writing. I started learning from freelancers online and applied to every job I could find on job boards, LinkedIn, and even Facebook. I was constantly rejected for almost two years because I had no portfolio or real experience, but I kept going.

In April 2021, when I was 17, I saw a job listing on ProBlogger from Alex Birkett (of Omniscient Digital) looking for a MarTech writer for his personal website. I had no idea what “MarTech” meant, but I applied anyway. The only samples I had were listicles from a small beauty blog I ran on WordPress, so I sent those. Ten days later, Alex emailed me and asked if I could write a test article on marketing automation tools.

I was shocked, but I immediately got to work. I read everything I could about marketing automation, wrote the piece in three days, and submitted it. He liked it, paid me $300 for it, and that became my first-ever B2B SaaS article.

I knew there was much to learn, so I immersed myself in blogs from Ahrefs, SEMrush, Animalz, and Backlinko. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became with B2B SaaS: how these tools worked, how companies grew, and how content could drive business growth. I kept applying to other jobs with the new bylines I earned on Alex’s site, and over time, that opened doors to work with companies like HubSpot, Thinkific, and Zapier.

That’s how I found my way into B2B and SaaS writing: part survival, part curiosity, and part falling in love with an industry I never planned to be in.

2/ What’s your approach to creating long-form, data-driven content that connects with both search engines and real readers?

My approach differs slightly based on how familiar I am with the topic.

If I already have personal or professional experience with it, that informs the angle I take. I think about what I already know, the real-world challenges I’ve seen, and the narrative that ties it all together. Then I look at the top-ranking articles on Google to understand the structure that Google likes and identify any gaps.

If it’s a topic I’m not familiar with (which is often the case in B2B), I spend a lot more time learning. I read the top-ranking articles not just to see their structures, but to understand the topic itself. I jot down notes, identify the essential sections, and check the People Also Ask box for additional questions to cover in the piece.

I also go on Reddit to see what people are saying about the topic. Reddit is one of my favorite sites for research because there’s always honest discourse and real user pain points, which helps me shape the content to be more relevant and practical for readers.

From there, I look for the most recent data and reports on the topic. I let the data guide my thesis, not the other way around, so I form my narrative based on what the numbers say.

To make the content tangible, I look for real-world examples. Sometimes that means testing tools myself and taking screenshots of what I’m doing. For opinion-driven content, I often gather insights from subject matter experts through platforms like Featured or Help A B2B Writer.

I sift through the responses and choose the quotes that genuinely add clarity and depth. Usually, the quotes align with the stats I gather from the report, but sometimes, I find an interesting contrarian angle I explore in the piece.

Once I’ve done the research, the writing becomes much easier. I focus first on search intent because I’ve found that, if I meet the reader’s needs, the keywords usually fall into place naturally. However, if the client uses Surfer or Clearscope, I often have to go back and add some extra keywords and tweak a few sentences.

Once the keywords are in place, I add internal (and external) links, polish the formatting, write the slug and meta description, and then send it to my editor.

Most of the work happens before I write the first sentence. Once the research is right, the narrative almost builds itself.

3/ What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned from working with brands like HubSpot, Zapier, and Thinkific?

I’ve learned so much from working with these brands, but here are the ones that have had the most impact on how I approach my work:

• Editorial excellence matters more than volume. Big brands prioritize clarity, quality, and accuracy over rushing content out the door. Working with them taught me how to slow down, think deeply about content structure, and make every section valuable. It also helped me build stronger self-editing habits.
• Content strategy is just as important as good writing. Brands like HubSpot and Thinkific don’t publish articles just to publish. Every piece exists for a reason, whether it’s supporting a product, answering a user question, educating a market, or ranking for a strategic keyword. I learned to always ask: What job is this content supposed to do?
• Data and examples are the backbone of long-form articles. HubSpot, Zapier, and Thinkific strongly emphasize using fresh data, real case studies, product-specific examples, and SME insights in long-form pieces and guides. This taught me to ground my writing in proof, not assumptions.
• Collaborating with editors makes the work (much) better. Their editorial teams are sharp. The editors I’ve worked with have taught me how to incorporate feedback without losing my voice, how to refine arguments, and how to break down complex ideas into digestible information.

The best content teams think long-term. Working with them showed me how the strongest B2B brands treat content as a long-term growth engine, not a short-term traffic hack. That mindset shaped how I approach strategy and execution for all my clients, especially in agency settings.

Must-Read Industry Content

Think smarter, faster: Each week, I share the articles that are shaping where content marketing is going, so you don’t have to dig.

1/ Short vs. Long Content in AI Overviews: The Data Says Both Work​

2/ Say what? Top marketing quotes of the year​

3/ Tough Questions CEOs are Asking About AI SEO (and How To Answer Them) w/ Gaetano DiNardi​

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