Any advice (or how to's) for rates, payment methods, etc. ?

I have been doing web design for a little while and I would like to do some freelancing. I have a lot of questions about billing, contracts, and what not. I am sure I could figure more or less a lot of it out, but since you have all done this before, I thought I would ask. Is there a how to or tutorial on beginning this kind of endeavor?

My questions are more specifically:

How much do I charge?
How do I get paid (meaning monthly, paypal)?
Where do I host clients' sites?
What are some good methods to managing my work?
What else am I missing?

Also, I live in Japan and will be doing bilingual sites if you have any information to that specifically. I also have connections in the states, so that information would be good too.

Forgive me for being so general. Any advice would help.

Thanks

This podcast on pricing might be able to help you out with deciding what to charge, it's pretty general.

http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/20...pricing-point/