[joshvm]

You should still aim for charging quite a bit higher than what you think is reasonable. There are an awful lot of bad developers, so even mediocre is probably fine. I've had consulting gigs where I've charged $200 an hour to answer a survey as a domain expert, and I learned later that I probably undercharged. People will pay, don't worry about that.

If you land a job that you feel got a bit close for comfort, lower your rates and re-calibrate. But assess why before selling yourself cheap - was it really beyond your skill? Did you just need more time? Don't forget that if you charge more, you can better devote your time to those projects. If you charge less you have to spread yourself more thinly to remain solvent.

[kasey_junk]

I can’t imagine any professional setting I’ve been in, where firing up the machinery to get a consultant in place would be worth $200. Conversely I’ve been in many situations where an expert reading one page of text and nodding (with a follow up email) was worth several thousand dollars.