How much do you charge?

Somebody called me and ask me to do an SEO job for him. We are in the same very competitive area. I don't want to help him beat me, but I may offer helps on his other type of websites. What rate should I charge him? I had only done SEO for affiliate networks before, meaning no per hour, per day, per job payment. I only got paid when a sale is made.

Should I say: "If I put you on top 10 of such and suck keywords" you pay me such and such? How do you charge people?

You should charge what you know your time is worth, not less and not more.
If your time is worth 150 USD/hour then it is what you should charge, if your time is worth 3.95 USD/ hour then it is what you should charge.

Try asking yourself, would I do this job for 15 USD/hour? would I do it for 30 USD? would I do it for 110 USD? etc.

I charge 750 NOK (aprox. 93 USD). If someone offers me 749 NOK / hour then I would decline the offer, simple as that.

It is very difficult to say easily.

Personaly I charge a fixed amount based on how long I know it will take and what I think the customer will take.
Presently I am so busy I am having to turn away work.

Charging on a perfrmance basis is very tricky as it is not easy to quantify.

Charge what you think you are worth.

It really depends how much you cam make your time worth to him and what he will way for that....!!

it's more than what your time is worhy. It's a balance of supply and demand

For my first project (outside of my own sites) I told the guy I would charge him $275 for a 8 page site and optimization...pretty easy keywords.

He uses so much java and flash that G doesn't even know he exists.