At face value it is easy to ask, take your experience (if it is 10+ years in the game) and you have successfully completed many projects send them a response asking for $200,000 and it will be a done deal if they can actually pay that. If that is out of their range, they will normally tell you and you may have to keep looking. I have seen some employees that were literally generating millions for a company but only being paid $80,000/year, poor benefits, .5% raise and no additional compensation (bonuses, stocks, 401k, etc.) or should I say a larger share of their contributions. Good companies will try to give bonuses or above inflation raises at the least.

If you do not have around 10 years and only about 5 then 125k to 150k is a pretty good range if you are really good and have the actual work experience. If you are in a really high cost area you will need to take into consideration the cost of living there. If you do not ask for enough it may limit your living options and after work options. It is normally easier to give a number higher than you want and bring it down to something you really want.

Though, you can really only ask for this rate if you are in the top pool of capabilities, performance and results and the interview is amazing. You also have to consider the amount of risks you are accepting by wanting more money. There will be things that you will be expected to know and do that would not be asked of people they are paying less. These can be things like building entire complex systems from scratch by yourself under little to no supervision under tight deadlines, be called upon to travel to other sites around the world because you would be the one trusted to just get it done and your known to get it done right.

If you are applying for jobs in a popular metro location the chances of making the higher ranges is normally higher.