Yes, anyone can do it. It takes work though.
Once your CD is done, make a release plan. For one of our CDs we planned a release party. Paid for radio commercials to announce it, showed up at the station with donuts and coffee, schmoozed a little and got some airplay along with the commercials, talked to the owner of the hall about our plan and he bought in. We got door and CD/tshirt sales and he got the bar. He told us at our last break he wanted to do it again (good night for bar). They ended up opening both sides of the hall up that night and calling in extra help to open the other bar. Everyone had a good night including us. We advertised in Canada and had people come across for the party. Executing a plan for the CD takes effort and a little $$ investment, but can pay off.

If you are going to release it act like you are doing a release.

For online sales CDBaby can help a lot, but sign up and get a UPC code before printing any CDs. Then you can sell it anywhere. Get the local CD store to stock a few (he can scan with UPC and track your sales). We have a very few CDs left over from another CD we did in '07 but I see that CD for sale online still. Right now I can find it at places like Amazon, iTunes, mtv.com, artistsdirect, importcds, cduniverse, payplay.fm, music.yahoo, cdandlp.com, allmusic.com, musicstack, jpc.de, amazon uk, (theres even an entry on billboard.com but no info)

Is it 'released'?

I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!