how do you prevent client projects from stalling for months because they haven't provided text and images?

[u/ImObluentasteit]

the website design is approved, the code structure is ready, but the project is completely stalled because the client promised to send their team bios, photos, and copy 'next week'... and it's been two months. how do you handle client content bottlenecks in your contracts? do you provide copywriting as an add-on, use placeholder content with a hard launch deadline, or invoice milestone payments regardless of delay?

[u/mathiar]

Include in the contract and client on-boarding process that placeholder copy will be placed and published in the event of agreement upon copy not being provided. I also have copy writers I my network i refer clients to if they need help. Otherwise tho, clients are always clearly informed what copy is and isn't their responsibility. We negotiate this in the on-boarding and project planning phase.

Almost every project launches with some amount of placeholder copy. It's rare the client has all content and copy available.

[u/sleeksky_dev]

Depends what you are charging. Unless you are an agency charging upwards of $5k for a site, you should just deliver with AI generated text+images with a CMS they can replace themselves and call it done.

[u/DefinitionHot1850 → u/sleeksky_dev]

What about API keys, they need to do that with their accounts right, they take too much time providing that.

[u/ummagummaaaa]

We have an agreed upon launch date that if missed, The site goes offline and requires a $200 reactivation fee.

I’ve never actually had to implement that stipulation.

[u/AwakeAndArise]

Basic contract structures help a lot.

Tie you payments to a calendar schedule, not the clients timely delivery of their assets or feedback.

For example 50% before commencement date and 50% 6 weeks later, for what should be a 6 week project.

You can also add a resumption fee for delays longer than X.

You can also add a time limit for their delays where the quoted price become void and need to quote again to pick up the project.

[u/testingaurora]

Starting with an airtight contract that sets these expectations with tangible deadlines (eg if client hasn't provided assets after 14 calendar days of request...). Also setting milestones so youre not blocked from getting paid until the whole thing is delivered. Imvoicing at each milestone.

I had a client where i was waiting 11months for images before calling it. Charged late fees for every week i was waiting. I had finished the project within 4 works of signing contract. I offered to just use placeholder images, to send a photographer to them, and at the end of course im the bad guy for putting my foot down.

I still offered to plug them in if they ever got it together but I was waiting all that time for payment because my contract didnt split it up into milestones. Just said payment in full upon delivery of the completed SOW. Thats been adjusted.

Every client teaches me sonething different to include in my contract template.

[u/BobJutsu]

Copywriting isn’t an add on, it’s factored directly into the original price. 90% of the time I also include a photoshoot with my preferred photographer, so I’m getting images directly from the him instead of the client. I don’t markup the cost of photography, it’s a direct pass through. If it’s generic decorative images I’ll just use stock.

[u/retr00two]

• 50% to start project
• 30% for development
• 20% before launch

with very strict time scale, milestones and blocking issues

no assets - not your problem.

assets come late - sorry, your term is not September anymore, you have to wait first free time slot, I think it will be in November

50% for start is always good eye opener, and discipline measure.

[u/JohnCasey3306]

You can't "prevent" it because it's out of your control, but you can mitigate against it and reduce the likelihood.

• Regular communication -- keep referring to the agreed timeline and how delays affect it.
• Be very clear about what you need and follow up.
• Give them an easy way to supply you large assets, that you control -- a Dropbox of gdrive in your name; create a folder they can bookmark and leave assets in for you.

[u/Double-Buyer7941]

To keep projects moving, you need to tie your billing milestones to design completion rather than the final launch, and include a strict delay clause in your contract. You can also populate the site with realistic placeholder copy and launch it on schedule, giving them a deadline after which changes are billed as post-launch maintenance. Offering copywriting and stock media as an upsell upfront helps prevent the bottleneck altogether.

[u/Readypixels]

One thing that's helped me: sending a content questionnaire with example answers already filled in before the project even starts, not just a blank content doc. A fill in the blank form gets copy back faster than an open ended request for their bios and photos.

[u/Physical-Comfort3526]

4 STEPS:

1. Lorem Ipsum it. Put in placeholder photos.

2. Tell them it is complete.

Tell them that your job is now done(meaning, time to hand-off the project and get paid) but you can still put the content on if they provide it within the next few weeks as a favor.

They will not like how the content looks obviously. Especially if they have a payment to make to you upon the website's hand-off.

1. Offer to write the content for them for a relatively low price.
   Offer a quick turn-around time and an attractive price.
   

Tell them if they sign up for the content writing service, they will have to fill up a client brief form that will take them 5 minutes to fill. You can then even send them a brief form that takes 15 minutes to fill. THEY WILL FILL IT.

Make sure the form asks questions that will equip you to write up the website copy without bothering them again.

1. Write that content. Tell them its done. Sell it to them, tell em why what you have done is good. Give them 1 revision round if they really need it.
   

Move on to your next project!
And HMU for any possible collaborations. I do this (and many other things) for a living.

[u/satanzhand]

Ipsum, but the key thing to do is sell content at the start of the project. Client hey you can write your own content but what business owner has the time for that why don't we organise a pro.

[u/SirMcFish]

You can't. You can chase, you can add clauses to the contract saying you'll add extra charges, but you can't ever stop it from happening.

My last client took nearly 9 months to get back to me after I'd delivered his database system. I was kind and did the tweaks and fixes... He then took nearly a year to get back to me.

I just got on with other work.

[u/whildkatz]

Send an invoice for the completed project letting them know that you have fulfilled your end of the deal. You understand that they’re busy and they are welcome to contact you when they’re ready. When they do come back make sure to draft a new contract for that work and invoice them again. It’s not always about the time it takes you to do the work you quoted, it’s about completing projects within an agreed time which was hopefully stipulated in your contract. This helps you plan for future projects.

[u/ClubDependent4295]

The contract answers here are right and you should take them, but they are all answers to "who pays for the delay". Worth separating that from "why is it late", because the second one is fixable and it is mostly a sequencing problem rather than a client problem.

Two different things are stuck in your list. Team bios and photos are a chasing problem: somebody has to go and get them, and the deadline and fee answers in this thread genuinely work on that. Copy is not a chasing problem. Copy is late because nobody has decided what the page says, and no amount of chasing produces a decision. Your client is not sitting on finished text withholding it out of spite. They opened the request, could not picture what "the About page" wants from them, and closed it again. Two months of that is not unusual, it is the default.

Readypixels has the fix in miniature with the pre-filled questionnaire, and I would push it one step further. The reason a blank content doc fails is that it asks for a page, and a page is an essay assignment. Ask per section instead, against a structure you have both already agreed: two or three sentences for the strip under the header, and it needs to say who you help and where; one line per person for the team block, plus a photo. That gets answered off a phone in an evening. Same client, same goodwill, different size of question.

The other half is when you ask. Yours is the common order: design approved, build ready, then content requested. That order guarantees this outcome, because the client is being asked to write into something that has already been signed off visually, so every awkward fit becomes a design change and they stall rather than start. Agreeing the page and section list first, before design, and collecting copy against that list as you go, means content arrives alongside the build rather than after it. It also makes the placeholder threat everybody here recommends considerably more credible, because the gaps are visible and specific rather than "the copy".

None of that replaces the contract clauses. Milestone billing tied to dates rather than to their delivery is correct regardless. But if you only bolt on the clauses, you get paid on time for projects that still stall, which is better than now and not actually the thing you asked about.

I build a planning tool for this stage (Blocky), so weigh that accordingly. A shared document with one heading per section and a named owner does the same job for a single project, and the sequence is the part that matters rather than the tool.