My site has the keyphrase in the domain. It's fairly new, 1/2008 with a great keyphrase. Google webmaster tools Top search queries does not give me any results for my keyphrase but I am #7 for a misspelling of them. I checked with some online tool and my site was not found at all for my keyphrase in google's results. There are hardly any links out on this site, so I don't think its a bad neighborhood problem. My content is original. I have adsense on the site. What is happening? Any one have a clue or guess what I need to do to get my site in the serps?
IMHO, your site is currently sandboxed. Wait 6-9 months... Till then keep adding content and building links.
It looks like I am starting to come out of the box already as the keyphrase is now showing in my webmaster tools
what happens if you search for the domain name itself...sometimes this can be a signal of whether you've got any penalties on it or not.
When I search for my URL my web site is now the first result. It looks like I was sandboxed from the time I registered my domain in the beginning of Jan until March 12th, maybe a bit longer. Still I don't seem to be all the way out yet. It seems like there is a gradual effect, but at least I am getting some hits from my keywords.