I had a site that I was trying to optimize appear on google for the 6th position only after a few days of registering and optimizing the site... However after the 2 days was up the keyword disappeared from the 6th spot Is this typical? Was I penalized? Is there any explanation for this?
go to google and type: site:www.yoursite.com -- if your site has 0 listing, you got blacklisted. Does your site show up?
it shows up but it doesn't have the same keyword position like i said it had it for 2 days then lost it went from 6th place to off the charts
Sandbox- that's what it sounds like. If your site is new, it probably got held down to prevent spam. Time will tell. If you have a WMT account you can see what's happening.
I read wikipedia for google sandbox and you're right that does sound like what's happening I do have a Google Webmaster Tools account... how can I use it to see what's happening?
Its natural to see results coming in a position and later seen nowhere. Go to this url and register your site and verify it. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools Submit an xml sitemap there. google will then tell you the reports.