‘Thin affiliate’ – Google penalty

After some research into why our website is ranking on page 20 of Google for our own name I now believe Google has classified us as a 'thin affiliate'.
Our website is not too dissimilar to hukd.com or vouchercodes.co.uk – both of which enjoy huge volumes of traffic.
I do not believe Google would have exceptions to their guidelines so how do websites such as these avoid Google penalties?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

See original post by AKpaddy