A year ago I was unhappy. I was in a job that I'd wake up for every single morning and seriously contemplate calling in sick. My friends were all off enjoying life, and I couldn't join them because I was working long hours.I decided that if I don't do something about it now, I'll forever be stuck in misery. I persuaded myself that, since plenty of other people love their lives & wake up happy to do their job, there was logically no reason why I couldn't do it either.A friend pointed me to thecourse. It started me off building an extremely simple "Hello World" app, it was learning by doing, and would gradually teach me to build more and more complex apps, by actually going through the steps to create them.What kept me going was the observable, daily improvement of adding layer upon layer to my very own iPhone App. This was really happening, very soon I'd have made an app all by myself! It was even motivating me at work, I would work harder to get everything done during the day, so that I could go home a little early and work on my app.About four weeks into training, I completed my very first app. It wasn't super complex, it merely displayed delays on local train lines. But it was mine. Creating an app, being able to show it to my friends on my phone was an incredible feeling. A feeling made even better when they all asked how they could get it on their phones! I loved knowing that something I created was useful and solved a real problem.I quit my job to focus on apps full-time, and I've never looked back. I make more money than I ever did working, but more importantly, I'm happy. I can work from anywhere I want to. The beach, the ski slopes. I do what I want, when I want, and it's never a burden to work, I love what I do. Nowadays, I wake up every morning with a smile on my face.I truly believe it's possible for anyone to make a living on the App Store, but you can't depend on one megahit like Angry Birds or Clash of Clans.My strategy is that you'll need probably a dozen or so apps in the $1.99 - $4.99 range. At $0.99 you're going for mass market, volume sales. The chances are, without large financial backing, this isn't going to work. A better strategy, is to make a more focussed app, that targets a very specific community, which will get fewer downloads, but you can charge more for, because that community will be passionate about it.You have to compromise on one dimension: you can either build something a large amount of people desire a small amount, or something a small amount of people desire a large amount. Choose the latter.Ads also aren't a viable source of steady revenue for any apps outside the Top 100. You just won't get enough ad views or clicks for it to even make enough to cover your build costs.Each of my (paid) apps get downloaded around 10 times a day (and trust me, I have some pretty obscure apps, from Gluten Free Apps to Driving Calculators), so this is based on 15 apps * 10 downloads/day * $2.99 avg price * 0.7 Apple Tax = $310/day = $115k a year.So there you have it: have a few, niche moderate successes to make good money on the App Store. And with what, 80 million? iOS devices in the world, it's not hard to get 10 downloads per day.- MOST IMPORTANT: be well-designed. App Store buyers love apps that are pretty and look good. - Here's a course that showed me App Designs that make more money and that users love:- If you can't design, then try stick with Apple's default look. It might not be unique, but it definitely won't be ugly.- Have a reusable app design. It's much easier to get to 15 apps when you can write the core app once and just swap out data sources for each new app.- Build apps fast and be agile; don't focus on one app for months on end without launching. If you're a Web Developer learn to transfer your skills over, try this HTML to App in 60 minutes course -- Make it clear that your users can get in touch with you via email or Twitter. And then respond to them!- Try free Lite versions of your apps with In-App upgrades.