By making a popular app and monetizing it

>>108111533
they don't

>>108111651
/thread that hasn't been a thing since 2015

>>108111533
give it away for free for a while, accept donations.
once your app becomes reasonably well known charge a reasonable fee.

>>108111533
1% of them do

I'm developing software (embedded) for our family buisness. That + I help assembling stuff we sell and my dad pays me a little above average where I live.
The easiest way to earn something solo is to be an engineer/embedded dev and you need a unique idea.

>>108111533
For the most part they don't, companies do.

>>108111533
>release popular app
>charge 99 cents for it
I know a dev whos made a couple of grand off one one of his apps

if you look on android theres a dozen different file managers and ftp servers and other similar apps. they all do the same thing but they push ads or charge to unlock more features. those guys make millions for what is effectively a basic OS feature thats standard on linux or windows.

>>108111533
>build app (doesn't matter what it does)
>release it for free
>get millions of users (this step matters)
>ads
>more ads
>even more ads
>microtransactions
>more microtransactions
>microtransactions to unlock further microtransactions (might be the most important part)
Good luck this works out for far less than 1% of all apps and its still the only real way to make money.