How do I avoid being ghosted by my freelance WordPress developer?

Concrete contract clauses. The “Friday update” pattern.

The five contract clauses

1. 1-business-day inbox SLA. “Vendor will respond to any communication within one business day. Vendor will respond to a site-down emergency within 4 hours.” With teeth: missed SLA = the next milestone is free.
2. Weekly written status. “Vendor will deliver a written status update by 17:00 UTC every Friday. Five sections: shipped, open, risk, decision needed, next week.” Missed week = same penalty.
3. Concurrent-cap declaration. “Vendor confirms that at the time of SOW signature, Vendor is engaged on N concurrent projects, and will not exceed N+1 during the engagement.” Public count on the vendor’s site is the gold standard.
4. Code repo access from day one. The buyer has read-access to the repo from the first commit. You can verify activity even if the vendor goes quiet for a day.
5. Exit clause. If the vendor goes quiet for more than two consecutive business days without notice, the buyer may terminate and retain all work-to-date with no further payment owed.

The Friday update pattern

I send a five-section written status every Friday by 17:00 UTC. Five sections, same template, every week. The discipline keeps clients informed even when I’m heads-down on a build week. It’s the single best contract clause for preventing the “what’s happening?” panic.