Hi,

I use the Baby Gator plan at Hostgator and create a
Wordpress blog using Fantastico.

It is pretty quick and easy.

It is a good idea to use your own blog and free sites to promote
products.

Until you build up some page rank it may be difficult to land
on the first page of Google for your keywords.

That is where the free sites come in.

I usually send my traffic from my personal blog and the free
sites to a cloaked page on my own domain.

I also add links from the free sites and article directories to my blog
to boost the page rank.

I also book mark my personal blog as well as the free sites.

I hope that helps.

Craig