1. Prepare the tools

• join Apple’s iPhone Developer Program ($ 99)
• get an iPhone or iPod Touch
• Prepare an Intel-based Mac Computer with Mac OS X 10.5.5
• a confidentiality agreement for hiring a developer (NDA)
• install the iPhone SDK. This SDK contains the complete development environment for Apple Xcode Cocoa.

2. Start your project in Xcode. Using project templates can save you a lot of time.

3. Design the user interface of your application.

The drag and drop interface design is not really difficult at all. You can also take advantage of the Photoshop GUI template for iPhone or the PSD vector kit for iPhone. Both are collections of iPhone GUI items that you may need.

4. Code your application

If you’ve used Objective C / Cocoa before, open Xcode and get started!

You can join these forums for more useful technical information:

• Apple Developer Forum
• iPhoneSDKForum
• IPhoneDev Forums

There are also some tips and tricks that can help:

• Don’t do everything from scratch. You can find a similar app and have your own code built in instead.
• Look for a snippet or snippet of code that can help the stuck part of your coding.
• Don’t follow the crowd. There are many applications on the market that have the same structure oriented to body functions. You can start something different.

5. Create your application

With the iPhone Xcode simulator, you can test your application before the actual test on a real iPhone or iPod touch. You must obtain a provisioning profile from the iPhone program portal to add testers to your project. You can access this portal by subscribing to the iPhone Developer Program.

6. Test your application on a real iPhone and iPod Touch

First, you must code sign your application. You can access the same iPhone program portal above to get these certificates. However, it can be difficult to have your app code signed correctly and test it on a real iPhone. See the note below for further assistance.

7. Continue testing and optimizing your app before you start promoting it.

Important note: If you don’t know anything about coding, you can certainly find some developer to work for you.

In fact, many people have been successful in hiring someone to take care of all the development of the application.

However, it is NOT as easy as it sounds.

You still need to know clearly about the process and be professional from the start if you don’t want to be fooled by some bad developers. They can steal your idea or they can give you a poorly coded app and tell you it’s qualified.

Here are some tips:

• To prevent people from stealing your idea, before asking a developer to work for you, ask them to sign a Confidentiality Agreement (NDA).
• You can give your idea to the developer by giving him the sketches you drew when you worked on your idea. You must make it clear how you want your application to be.
• Getting an iPhone app developed by a professional developer can cost a lot ($ 500 – $ 10,000 or more!). You must contact multiple developers to request a quote for your application. Then you may be able to save a lot of money by choosing the right one.
• Although you may not know anything about coding, you still need to know how to test your own application. You don’t want to spend money on a bad product, and neither do your customers. You need to know how your application works before it is released, or it can be a real disaster.
• To find your developer, you can go to elance.com or odesk.com.