Why couldn't the A380 secure any orders for two straight years?
Several reasons:


A380s are really expensive. Unit cost for an A380, depending on interior appointments, is about \$375 million. The 747-8 is about \$357 million. The 777-300ER is about \$320 million, the last variants of the A340 about \$275 million, and the 787 about \$200 million. The 380 might be the biggest airliner ever to fly, but it's also the most expensive. Keep in mind these jets can't fly every day, requiring you to buy a couple more than the schedule requires and rotate them in as maintenance is required on each airframe. That means A380 operators have at least one three hundred and eighty million dollar airframe sitting on the tarmac not making money on any given day (in fact, up to 55 days at a time for the 6-year "D check" maintenance, not counting lower-level maintenance performed more often as well as any unscheduled maintenance).
Airbus could not/cannot build them fast enough to meet initial orders in a timely manner. Airbus received 189 initial A380 orders prior to the airframe's scheduled start of production in 2007, plus 27 A380F variant orders, and has received 128 since production began (though the freighter orders were cancelled). To date, it's only delivered about half due to a combination of issues found during full-scale production that delayed ramp-up, and currently its pace is about 30 planes a year, giving it about a 3 year backlog of remaining orders (some of which have been sitting in the build queue for 10 years). It initially prioritized passenger variants for Emirates, which put in the largest single order (almost half of total orders) to handle that airline's primarily long-haul schedule. As a result, everyone else got pushed off until many (including FedEx and UPS which were waiting for freight versions) cancelled their orders and went to Boeing for 747-8Fs or 777-ERFs.
Jumbos represent a serious cost-revenue risk that most airlines are no longer willing to gamble on. You use a jumbo jet when you need to move a lot of people at one time. That typically means a high-demand, long-distance route that calls for nonstop service, but that you don't want to have to fly any more times than you have to. 747s used to be used for high-volume domestic connectors in the US during and immediately after the regulation era, between major cities like New York, Chicago, LA, Houston, Miami etc. They were also used for major intercontinental flights, primarily because regulations required more than two engines for trips extending a certain distance beyond the nearest divert field. However, the 747 is a 50-year-old design with only incremental improvements made in efficiency. Four engine jets in the modern air transport market require you to fill the plane every time, and with ETOPS-rated two-engine widebodies now making many of the same flights that previously required three or more engines, the A380, even with the most efficient engines ever put on a commercial airliner, is at least three decades late to the jumbo party, and is entering the market at a time when the 747 is being phased out of most fleets in favor of more economical widebodies.
The A380 was designed for an air travel market that hasn't materialized. Airbus was betting big (NPI) on airport congestion and increased passenger counts during the 80s and 90s requiring a shift to fewer flights on larger-capacity planes to reduce pattern and gate congestion. Except for a few major metropolitan areas that simply cannot grow their airports anymore (O'Hare, LaGuardia/JFK, Heathrow etc) that hasn't really been the case. 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis have seen passenger counts plummet from post-regulation highs, which has reduced total flights and allowed smaller planes which are more efficiently scheduled. In addition, Denver opened up the largest airport by land area in the world (so it has plenty of room to grow), while Atlanta, Dallas, Charles de Galle and others are busy primarily because they're massive complexes with efficient layouts that can support a major airline's hub operations. The use of jumbos in general is therefore very risky, and many airlines, in addition to passing on the A380, are phasing out the venerable 747 that was previously unchallenged in this class, in favor of something a little more economical in the next smaller widebody class, like the 777, 787, A340 or A350. That was Boeing's bet, that smaller, high-efficiency jets would be the wave of the future over pure size, and it seems to be paying off as Boeing, despite higher production capacities, has more 787 orders than it has capacity for the foreseeable future, while Airbus's competing A350 is more or less getting the overflow (and it can't even meet that demand; 700 orders, 5 produced).
The A380 really doesn't solve the problem it was created for, and in fact causes more problems for airports than it solves. A super-heavy like the A380 creates monumental wake turbulence that poses a danger to other planes, which requires ATC to space following traffic further back (up to double the time/distance compared to a midbody), while for smaller jets (even widebodies), approach control can usually get away with a little more than standard 2-minute spacing unless the plane behind it is a much smaller regional jet or GA prop. So, the A380 can carry about 520 passengers in mixed-class configuration (Emirates' 6-star config seating only about 490), but takes up two "slots" in the approach pattern, while a 777 can carry 320 passengers in mixed-class layout and can be spaced much more closely to other airliners. So in terms of maximizing total passenger movement at an airport, two 777s or A340s are better than one A380.

At the gate, the A380 causes even more headaches. It's so honkin' big that adjacent gates typically can't be used while it's parked, and it often requires additional jetways to efficiently board and deplane its passengers. As one example, DFW's Terminal D was fairly recently renovated to be the airport's primary international terminal, including Gate 16 in the southwest corner specifically intended to allow 747s to park with minimal adjacent gate disruption (17 couldn't be used, but 18 was available for smaller jets and 15 around the corner could handle pretty much any size):

 

When the A380 came to DFW in 2014, with Qantas replacing the 747 on the famous Flight 7 and Flight 8 from Sydney to DFW (the longest scheduled passenger flights by travel time in the world), and Emirates commencing service to and from Dubai with A380s, DFW had to redesign this corner of the airport entirely, basically having the A380 come in diagonally to Gate 15. Gate 15 then services first class, 16's jetway was moved and extended to load and unload the lower deck, and a third jetway, 16X, was built adjacent to 16 solely for the A380's upper deck. The jetways for Gates 14 and 17 then had to be lengthened considerably to allow their use with a 380 at the ramp, otherwise the superjumbo would essentially take up 4 entire gates while parked:




As an aside for scale in the last image, Gate 14 to the right is in Sun Country livery which would make it a 737-700, while the American jet at the very top at Gate 19 is still in older livery, and with its long narrow body the best guess is a 757-200. Gate 17 looks like an Air Canada Rouge so with the body length I'd say A319, and Gate 18 is in new American livery so it's a 737-700. None of them really big aircraft by today's commercial standards, but they're certainly not puddle-jumpers either (all aircraft at this terminal are for international flights), and the Emirates A380 at gates 15/16/16X absolutely eclipses them all. It is a big jet.