[LDN]

There sure are people making enough money to live of selling themes and templates. I myself created a couple of WP themes almost two years ago and can still live from the revenue. I am however enrolled in university so my costs are significantly lower than they would be as a regular freelancer. The costs of living are always relative as to where you are in your life, your lifestyle and of course where you live. Someone living in a country where the dollar is much stronger than the local currency has a big advantage. What is also often forgotten about are taxes and insurance. You always have to have a little something saved up if a problem should arise.

If you have a solid code base, a few creative ideas and good graphic skills you can still make quite a bit of money. Of course it is always important to find a niche in the market that is not as over-saturated as others. But that basically applies to any other business.

[clintonc]

Do you sell your themes from your own site?

[LDN]

No, I am selling through a very well known marketplace which will get a cut for each sale. In my opinion it is much easier to start with due to the high reach of potential customers you will get. As soon as you built a customer base you could probably consider selling the themes on your own site.

[notastartup]

what marketplace did you choose if you don't mind me asking... I tried themeforest and had no luck. I just don't know what these cats want.

[LDN]

Well, it's Themeforest. I agree that their rejection reasons often seem generic and somewhat random but with the amount of submissions they receive it is understandable. As I said, if the quality is right and you somehow stand out from the crowd chances are pretty high it'll get accepted.