Jennifer Mattern of AllFreelanceWriting has a great article on Setting Freelance Writing Rates the Right Way.

It’s easy for a freelance writer to say “I earned $50,000 at my old day job and I got by fine, so I want to set a goal to earn the same amount from my freelance writing full-time.” What’s harder is understanding that the two numbers truly aren’t comparable, and they can’t be interchanged as easily as that.

The article outlines some of the calculations to make when setting an hourly rate for writing. It’s well worth a read. I’ve also written on this topic in my article on Freelance Writing: What Is The Job Worth?