Using Web 2.0 for Marketing - slow but hopeful

It is such an exciting time for anybody who has been trying to promote their own business, whether you are an artist, creative thinker, writer, performer, small business owner. I just watched a webinar from Hubspot: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4454/Combine-SEO-Blogging-and-Social-Media-to-Optimize-Your-Marketing-Efforts.aspx
on using SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Social Media (like Facebook, MySpace), Blogging, etc... to do promotions - all free except the time it takes to learn how to use these tools and to monitor them daily.

I am pretty much a newby and learning and playing with these tools and ideas to promote my Real Estate business, our Obama Theme Song Downloads and my Training Consulting business. One step at a time! I have a Facebook account started groups and joined groups that are in my business area, I have just created pages on Facebook which are like websites (still need to work on them).

I have 3 Blogs: Ctrl/Alt/Del (Living the Life You Love) "http://frannyknightcontrolaltdelete.blogspot.com">Ctrl/Alt/Del ; Red, Hot & Green Eco Agent Blog: http://redhotandgreenecoagent.blogspot.com/ and Transformers for Creative Leadership, Training, Visionaries at Work: http://frannyknight.blogspot.com/. I am learning how to set up webinars, but haven't found the most cost effective service yet. I have just learned about Slideshare.com where you can post slideshows. I have videos uploaded on YouTube and a YouTube Channel (still needs a lot of work).

These are just a few things I have been doing, so much more to do. It is such a high learning curve. My biggest challenge, next to just the learning of it all, is to get past some of the Social Media sites bent towards just being social vs. using it for business. It seems that I get more of a response (not much of one at that) when I post things that are funny, cute, goofy, family oriented. Nobody every responds to my business postings, like my blogs and notes that are more business oriented - here on facebook??? Still learning how to get it to be more serious.

Is anybody else that is a Solo Business/Entrepreneur/Artist having any luck with promoting yourself in these new ways?