Why your rates are painfully lower than they should be examines why many of us never achieve the hourly rate that we quote a client for a project. Some of the reasons include one of my favorites: endless email contact. I really like email, but every freelancer I know has had someone who has abused email by sending dozens of inquiries and details a day. All of that adds a processing time per email, and has to be included in the rate. More on effective rates here.