> It took me a while (since I put so much effort into building the site)
to understand why - mainly because the same content is duplicated over
multiple sites.
Sounds to me like it's a datafeed site with content being what the
merchants provide to you and everyone else. Not only that, but if
you're using a certain popular software program that creates pages from
the feeds and you leave the URL names as they are in the feeds'
categories, you're also duplicating the filepaths, which in and of
itself is a dead giveaway. Not that there's anything wrong with the
tool, it's how the tool is being used that's the problem.
> I would like to know if "new" affiliate sites will "never" be indexed,
or is this just "sandboxing", should I wait for a few months to see
if my site will ever be indexed?
New affiliate sites will be indexed - as yours is - but don't count on
pages that are duplicate content being indexed. The day of
cookie-cutter feed sites is just about over but for the shouting, which
can get pretty LOUD at times. There have been some people going so far
as to blame Google for ruining their business. I once read some forum
posts after a particularly lethal update a couple of years back where
some folks were actually blaming Google for "ruining their lives.". One
was crying that he'd have to go live in a cardboard box under a bridge
and it was all Google's fault. :D
> I'm thinking if I should give up affiliate marketing, since there are
already so many affiliate sites out there with the same content.
No, don't give it up, change the plan and stop using only duplicate
ontent. There are still plenty of affiliate sites doing just fine. Just
give up using only the same content as everyone and their second cousin
is using, and the same file structures. Dig in and learn to customize,
and create content that's original and exlusively yours.
Another thing, what it seems like to me is that it takes a certain
amount of inbound link love and PR (and good internal navigation which
is also good for users) to get sites indexed deeper, so you might have
to bite the bullet and not only start generating some original content
and added value, but also start pursuing some quality inbound links.
