Good Looking Well organized Took a lot of effort to code Thousands of pageviews weak niche 0 revenue NO future
That pretty much sums it up, though it could be even worse. Time + money does not always equal success. The more time and money you spend, the harder you might fail.
Yes, making no money is a sad thing for a site. So promotion and seo are aslo important, more time and effort should be spent there perhaps.
Revenue is not the only goal on the web. Many websites are setup for providing information and creating awareness. Most government and many non-profit websites have no revenues but are still considered helpful and many of them are actually essential. Corporates use websites for brand building and customer interaction. Again these websites have no revenues, but their long-term benefits are unquestionable. What about websites that people create just because they are interested in a particular subject/topic. e.g. http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/. This website has no revenue and a limited number of readers, but it is considered one of the most valuable online resource for Indian economics. (The site has good reasons why it is PR6).
For me failed website would be: If i have invested 2 years of time on optimizing my GSM blog and the year in which i started making some good money a new technology CDMA and 3G comes over and f--ks everything....! That would be a failed website for me
I'm sure ppl making websites without the goal of monetizing are one of those: - Teenagers that dont know nothing about life and have parents to pay their shit - Rich people
You answered you own question! 'Weak Niche' implies lots of people looking, but not a huge demand to buy whatever it is you are selling?