Before becoming a member you should have.....

my mining is 62 but my smithing is only 45 im finding it really hard to go up in smithing and i cant spend all my time mining 2000 coal just to mak 1k of steel barz, wot is the best way 4 me to get my smithing up???

You can't really put a certain level because some people join members for different things... If you are a "main" (you do every skill) you might have different levels than a "pker" (you are pure melee, ranged, or magic) My personal opinion is that you should try to get every skill to level 50 as possible before members just so you have a jump start on some of the higher level quests and stuff.

before becomming a member it is reccomended that you have a minimum of 100k gp, plus get melee stats up to around 50 if you are a meleer, mage and range to around 50 for teleports and ranged armours. pures obviously will only need to get the fighting syle they choose up to a decent lvl. you should try and get your crafting up to around 35-40, wc is nice and easy to lvl, so perhaps upto 60-70. fire making is a bit of a useless skill, but 50 fire making is needed for the desert treasure quest, so perhaps get it up to that for quest purposes. prayer is kind of difficult to lvl in f2p, but it would be best to at least go into members with 41-43 prayer, again for quest purposes, as well as pking. smithing in f2p can be a pain, especially for iron as you only get 50% smelt on it, you could always just mine to about lvl 50 in f2p then smith when you join members, that way you could use the ring of forging on any iron you want to smelt. fishing should also be between 40 and 68, 40 if you want to get lobs in catherby, or 68 to use the fishing guild.

No levels needed. I think a thourgoh knowledge of the member's prices and items would be a good idea so that you do not get "ripped off". I think you should wait 1-3 months before comming a member so that you make sure you know all the rules and follow them closely.

i would say exactly what bobbyjoe just said, as it is a realistc target and can help out alot when you are a member.