If you are able to create an original theme that offers something new to designers and developers (who are the main customers of premium themes) you can make thousands of dollars in only a couple months. Study the themes with several sales to see what they have in common and incorporate those things into your own theme.
It's also a great opportunity to find customers looking for support and outsourcing.
Really. This is very interesting - it definitely goes against the grain of what other commenter are saying. Don't you think the theme market is over saturated?
(wow the godaddy ceo is a jerk, killing elephants for sport - for anyone thinking of defending it as a necessary evil, note how he went out of his way across the world to "help out" by killing it)
Obviously if he wanted to "help out" he would have just donated the money to some good cause in the area, and this was all just a thinly veiled vacation. However, in certain areas of Africa (namely Zimbabwe and Botswana, I've spent time in both), they have more elephants than the ecosystem can really take. Hunting elephants in Botswana is all but encouraged (as long as it is done with proper permits of course), because they need help to control the population.
Elephants are not a threatened species everywhere, even though they struggle in some parts of Africa / the world.
If you are able to create an original theme that offers something new to designers and developers (who are the main customers of premium themes) you can make thousands of dollars in only a couple months. Study the themes with several sales to see what they have in common and incorporate those things into your own theme.
It's also a great opportunity to find customers looking for support and outsourcing.