Can a website still make loads of money if it doesn't rank for competitive keywords?

[burgerman]

Let's say you have an 'OK' domain - not a premium domain with loads of direction navigation traffic - and you have lots of useful unique content (eg 500-1000 pages). The site's niche is very profitable (and competitive).

Is it unheard of for a website that doesn't rank well for profitable/competitive terms and doesn't have tons of type in traffic to make a lot of money?

What about through extensive high-quality link-building?

Thanks

[stock_post]

No

[INFORG]

you could possibly do it with link building and going after long-tail keywords instead of the top keywords

[AbsoluteKC]

You can still earn money from long tail keywords ranked from some articles since you have a lot of unique content.