I have published apk to the Android Market, activated and setup for free for all countries.
Probably your uploaded APK file is not active. You can check this in the APK tab and switch to "Advanced mode". Here you should have 2 categories, "Active" and "Inactive".
Your file is probably in the Inactive category and you can change it by clicking the Activate link that should be behind it.
Hope my translations are correct as my Market account is in Dutch :)