Freelancing

You got into freelancing because of the dream of working while sipping pina coladas, sunbathing at the beach, and having COMPLETE control of your time. You’ve since realized that you traded a boss for five bosses, a set schedule for no schedule, and the illusion of freedom for the reality of working more hours than you ever did in your 9-to-5.  Spoiler alert: Time management for freelancers is an entirely different beast from managing time as an employee. I’ve been freelancing as a content writer for years now, and I’ve watched dozens of talented freelancers burn out not because they couldn’t do the work, but because they couldn’t manage it. The “free” in freelancer was supposed to mean free time, but now it just feels like you’re free to work all the time. This guide covers nine time management strategies that work for the messy reality of freelance life. Not theory from productivity gurus who’ve never invoiced a client. Instead, these are practical systems you can implement today, whether you’re a writer, designer, developer, or any other type of freelancer. Let’s get into it. 1. Treat client work like projects, not a to-do list Most freelancers make the same mistake when they start. They dump everything into one massive to-do list. Client A’s blog post sits next to Client B’s website revisions, which sits next to “buy groceries” and “call dentist.” This combination often results in constant mental friction. Every time you look at your to-do list, you’re scanning 47 items trying to figure out what to work on next.  Your brain is doing unnecessary work before the actual work even starts. Here’s what works better: treat each client like a separate project with its own workspace.  Keep all tasks, deadlines, notes, and deliverables for that client in one place. When you sit down to work on Client A, you should only see Client A’s stuff. Everything else disappears. I use TickTick for this. I create a folder called “Client Work,” and inside that folder, each active client gets their own list. So I’ll have “Client A – Net New Blog Posts,” “Client B – Content Refreshes, ” and “Client C – Whitepaper.” Under each client, I list all their tasks as main items, with subtasks for the steps. For example, under “Client A – Net New Blog Post,” I’ll have a task like “2,000-word SEO article on project management” with subtasks: When I’m working on Client A stuff, I open that list, and everything else is hidden. There’s no mental clutter from the other four clients I’m managing. The benefit here is that your work is organized, and you can see the status of each project at a glance. You know exactly where you are with each client without opening emails or digging through folders. 2. Use calendar blocking Freelancers love saying “I can work whenever,” like it’s a feature. Dear John, that’s actually a bug. Sorry if your name’s not John. Working whenever means work bleeds into everything. Evenings, weekends, and the quick 20 minutes right before dinner. You never feel off because you’re always on. Calendar blocking fixes this.  You assign specific hours to specific clients or task types, and you protect those blocks like Dom Toretto protects his family. For instance, you could set your Monday and Wednesday mornings for deep writing work. During these times, your phone is locked away so you don’t receive any calls, emails, or Slack notifications. Then, Tuesday afternoons for client calls and revisions. And then Friday afternoons for admin work like invoicing, updating my project tracker, and organizing the following week. I’ve found Opal extremely useful if you need your phone but don’t want to open distracting apps. The BlockSite Chrome plug-in works great, too, if you’re mostly on your desktop. The trick is making your blocks visible. I schedule my tasks directly in TickTick’s calendar view so I can see my entire week laid out.  When I’m planning my week on Sunday night, I can drag tasks onto specific days and set durations. This planning does two things. First, it makes your capacity visible. When a potential client asks if you can take on a new project next week, you can check your calendar to see if you have room for it. No more optimistically saying yes and then panicking on Wednesday. Second, it creates boundaries. When 6 pm hits and my calendar shows I’m done for the day, I’m done. The work doesn’t disappear, but it’s scheduled for tomorrow. I can close the laptop without guilt. If you’re looking for more tools to support your freelance workflow, I wrote about tools for B2B content writers that might help. 3. Batch similar tasks together Every time you jump from writing to editing to sending invoices to answering emails, your brain needs time to recalibrate fully. I know mine does. You think you’re being efficient by “knocking out quick tasks” between deep work, but you’re actually sabotaging yourself. The solution is batching. Group similar tasks and do them in dedicated blocks.  All writing in one session, admin in another, and client communication in a third. I tag everything in my to-do list app. Writing tasks get #writing. Editing gets #editing. Admin stuff like invoicing and contract updates gets #admin. Client calls and emails get #communication. (I use TickTick for this, though most of the best to-do list apps support tagging and smart lists.) Then I create smart lists that automatically pull tasks by tag. When it’s Friday afternoon admin time, I open my “Admin” smart list and power through invoicing, time tracking, proposal updates, and contract renewals all at once.  Now, I’m no longer switching from creative writing to spreadsheets five times throughout the week. I do all the boring stuff in one focused session, and it takes way less time. Same with client emails. Instead of answering every email as it comes in throughout the day, I batch email responses. Morning check at 9 am, afternoon check at

If you asked me to tell you why Lionel Messi is the GOAT 🐐, you’d better pull a chair because we’re going to be here for a while. But if you asked me about personalizing email campaigns? I might stutter a little bit. As a SaaS content writer, I’ve written dozens of articles on topics I knew nothing about before starting the research. Email personalization, SMS marketing automation, and HR analytics software. The list goes on. How do I write articles on topics where I’m not the expert? Simple. I interview the people who are. I’ve conducted 15+ expert interviews this year for clients such as Zapier, HubSpot, and SimpleTexting. The articles consistently rank well, audiences love them, and experts often message me afterward to say how smooth the interview was. In this article, I’ll walk you through my exact process for conducting expert interviews that turn into content people want to read. Why I started interviewing experts I’ll be honest with you. Most of the articles I read in my niche sound the same. Brooklin Nash of Beam Content aptly captures how most of them read. They follow the same structure and talking points that have been bouncing around the internet for the past three years. And it’s not that B2B writers are lazy.  It’s because they’re all pulling from the same source: Google’s first page.  Here’s what typically happens. A content manager assigns an article on, say, customer retention strategies. The writer opens five top-ranking articles, collates the common points, adds a few extra tips, and hits publish.  While it’s not plagiarism, it’s not original either. I caught myself doing this early in my career. I was cranking out articles fast, hitting my deadlines, and checking all the SEO boxes. But when I looked back at my work, I couldn’t remember writing half of it. Nothing stood out. Readers notice it too.  They’re tired of reading yet another article that summarizes what’s already out there. They need someone to cut through the noise and tell them what works. Expert interviews do just that. They offer: Original insights you won’t find on page one of Google.  The subject matter expert shares what they’ve learned from experience, not what they read in another blog post.  These expert insights also help you demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) for Google and other search engines. Specific examples and real data Instead of “personalization increases engagement,” you get “we saw open rates jump from 18% to 31% when we added the recipient’s company name in the subject line.” Quotes that make your content feel alive Nothing beats a direct quote from someone who knows what they’re talking about. It adds authority and breaks up the monotony of a single voice throughout the article. Built-in credibility When you feature an expert, their reputation extends to your content. Readers trust the information more because it’s coming from someone with proven experience. What this means for content managers If you’re managing a content team, you’ve probably felt the pressure to produce more content, faster. The temptation is to scale by hiring more writers or churning out more articles. But volume doesn’t solve the problem if every article sounds like everyone else’s. Expert interviews give you a different competitive advantage. Instead of racing to publish the 50th article on “customer retention strategies,” you publish the one article that actually has something new to say. When you build expert interviews into your process, you can expect the following changes: Your content stands out Because of the unique insights shared, your article gets remembered and stands out in the sea of sameness. You build relationships with industry experts Every interview is a networking opportunity. The experts you feature become part of your network. They share your content, refer other experts, and sometimes become customers or partners. Your writers deliver better work When writers have access to experts, they learn from practitioners and produce content that reflects specialized knowledge and real expertise. You protect your investment Generic content has a short shelf life. It gets buried when competitors publish their version. Expert-backed content stays valuable longer because it contains insights that don’t exist anywhere else. Expert-led content should be in the mix if you plan to build a content program that drives pipeline and positions your company as a leader in 2026 and beyond. How do you go about creating such content? Glad you asked. Here’s my process. Finding the right expert to interview Who do you interview? How do you find potential experts? To find the ideal expert, I first consider the type of content I want to create. For example, for high-level strategy pieces, I look for executive-level experts or industry leaders with relevant experience. Matching the expert to the article type saves everyone time. Check for internal experts first Every company has people who know their stuff. Product managers, customer success leads, sales engineers, and technical specialists. These are excellent resources you can tap into. Internal subject matter experts are super valuable because they have deep knowledge of both the product and the audience. They can speak to real customer problems and how the product solves them. Plus, featuring internal experts positions your client’s team as thought leaders. I sometimes ask my point of contact: “Who on your team would be great to interview for this?” Most of the time, they know exactly who to connect me with. Tap into your existing network You’d be surprised how many subject matter experts are already in your network. Filter by company, job title, or industry to narrow it down. For example, when I was working on this piece on product differentiation, I reached out to product marketing managers in my network. You’ll notice how my message shares enough information for the expert to say yes. You don’t want to send a message like, “Hi Nathan, can I pick your brain about email marketing?” They’d be less likely to respond. Use Slack communities I’m in several Slack groups

You just read yet another income report, and the writer claims they’ve made $150,000 in the last 9 months. (Many of them aren’t lying.) You then open LinkedIn, and almost every connection has a variation of “SaaS content writer” or “freelance b2b saas content writer” on their headline. Guilty as charged. Now you’re left wondering, what the heck is SaaS content writing? And how do you become a SaaS content writer? You start digging. You read a few job postings. They mention terms such as “technical fluency,” “understanding B2B buyer journeys,” “product-led content,” and “explaining complex software solutions.”  None of which sounds like the blog posts you’ve been writing about iGaming, travel destinations, or recipes. Then you notice the rates. $800 per article. $1,200 for a 2,000-word piece. Some writers charge $5,000 monthly retainers for just 4-6 articles. You’re currently getting $150-$250 for similar word counts. Ouch. You click on a few writer profiles to see what they’re producing. The content looks…fine? It’s not Ogilvy. Neither is it Emily Dickinson—except maybe with the em dashes. Not dramatically better than what you write or could write. So what gives? Why the massive gap?  What do these SaaS writers know that you don’t? Do they have computer science degrees? Years of tech experience you’ll never have? Turns out, none of that. I would know—I’ve been writing long-form content for software companies like HubSpot, Zapier, SimpleTexting, and many more for over 5 years now.   I didn’t have a tech background to start with (I finished university with a degree in Statistics). I wasn’t a developer. I didn’t even fully understand what “SaaS” meant when I wrote my first piece about copywriting resources. What I did have was curiosity about why this niche existed and a willingness to learn a new way of thinking about content. Because that’s what SaaS content writing really is. You need to understand how Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses make money (spoiler: recurring subscriptions, not one-time purchases).  You need to translate technical features into benefits that matter to non-technical buyers. And you need to create content for 3-6 month sales cycles where five different people evaluate the product before anyone agrees to spend money. All of this is learnable. Faster than you’d expect. This guide breaks down what a SaaS content writer actually does on a day-to-day basis, why companies pay significantly more for this work, and what skills separate the high earners from the struggling generalists.  You’ll also see specific steps to land your first SaaS clients, even if you’ve never written a single word about software—all drawing from my experience. By the end, you’ll know whether this niche is right for you. And if it is, you’ll have a roadmap that doesn’t involve spending months figuring things out through expensive trial and error. Table of Contents What a SaaS content writer does A SaaS content writer writes sales and marketing content for software companies. They write about software products and the problems they solve.  The content they create is designed to guide people through various stages of awareness. From “I have a problem” to “this specific tool solves my problem better than the alternatives.” The goal is to educate potential customers, build trust, generate leads, and ultimately grow revenue. Something I’d like you to emphasize is that you will be primarily writing marketing content about these software products.  Yes, an understanding of what the product does is essential, but you’re not going to be “writing software.” Instead, you’re promoting the SaaS product. For example, Notion’s engineers have built features such as databases, AI, and template systems. If Notion hires you as a SaaS content writer, you’re not going to be joining the engineers in writing code. Your responsibility would likely be to write a blog post, like “How to Use Notion as Your Second Brain,” that shows freelancers why they need Notion. You’re explaining why those features matter to someone trying to organize their entire work life. Get it? The content you’ll create On any given week as a saas writer, you might work on: Educational blog posts  These attract an audience searching for solutions to specific problems. Blog posts are often optimized for search engines and designed to demonstrate expertise and build trust with potential clients.  For example, in this blog post for Zapier, I help marketers understand how to personalize their emails. The piece includes real-life emails and expert recommendations on how it’s done.  Since it’s for Zapier, the post also ties in Zapier’s integration with the email service providers people use. Product-led content Product-led content demonstrates how software addresses real-world problems.  Instead of listing features in isolation, product-led content walks readers through use cases, workflows, and outcomes. It answers the question every B2B buyer has: “Will this work for someone like me?” My favorite source of product-led content inspiration comes from Ahrefs’ blog.  Almost every article weaves in different Ahrefs features or products as the solution to their audience’s problem. Comparison pages  Comparison pages position software products against competitors.  This type of content requires researching what competing tools offer, understanding where your product excels, and presenting that information honestly without sounding defensive or overly biased. Here’s an example of a piece comparing Squarespace and WordPress. Case studies and customer stories If you want to buy a new pair of running shoes, you’ll likely spend a ton of time reading what other people have said about said shoes. The same principle applies to software products. Software buyers want to see how others like them have fared using a product. Case studies and customer stories help companies prove that their product can deliver results. For you, as a writer, this means interviewing clients, extracting compelling details, and structuring those insights into narratives that feel authentic rather than like thinly-veiled sales pitches.  Here’s an example of one I wrote for SimpleTexting. In the piece, I wrote about how a text messaging strategy (powered by SimpleTexting, of course) helped a brand build its contact list to nearly 500 from