Personally I would say avoid presets and actions like the plague. I believe that they stifle your creativity, and you mostly have no control over the final output (unless you start layering and masking etc.)
There is no magic bullet to make your pictures look good, each photo should be evaluated on an individual level and then treated accordingly. You will soon realise that blanket applying a preset or action to every photo you take will not make good results.
Just because something looks a bit arty doesn't make it right.
Take your time to really study your photos and work out where selective editing will enhance the image. Start by looking at you highlights, mid tones and shadow areas and using the dodge/burn tool where needed, then look at colour and tone of the image overall, and rather than just choose a funky filter, look at the tonal ranges and colours you have in the image and edit the overall look with something that will compliment what you have, or give you a specific look that you are after.
Trust me, Lightroom is a powerful tool, and photoshop even more so. Once you learn how to use your software properly, you won't bother using these off the shelf things. Besides, if you use these filters, you are using the same look that thousands of others are doing which means your work really lacks originality. You should be thinking about how to achieve your own unique look and style, rather than choosing something that just seems to look cool.
There are tons of sites out there with tutorials on the basics of photo editing, just wade your way through them and learn how to achieve far better results using the tools you have.
Well, thats my 2p anyway
