Why there are no popular manga series based on light novels?
After a decent amount of research, I have to retract my previous answer.

There are in fact a lot of series that started as Light Novels and achieved commercialized success. Some include Accel World, Zero no Tsukaima, Haruhi Suzumiya, and Shakugan no Shana.
Their order of progression was LN -> Manga -> Anime.

Then there are still LN today that have a manga, but no anime , such as Kagerou Project (although scheduled for Spring 2014).