High praise! I'm flattered. The closest thing I have to a club is--big shocker--my newsletter, so thanks for joining it.

WordPress is a CMS (content management system) for managing web content, not an email platform.

Email platforms (MailChimp or EmailOctopus) are tech for running your email list.

If you host on WordPress, there *are* email platforms that run as WP plugins. But these are just competitors to MailChimp, etc. You will pay a fee for these, just as you pay for MailChimp or another email platform.

But if you use EmailOctopus or whatever, you can create embedded sign-up forms that will live right on your WP site.

It's super common for people with WP sites to have their newsletters via MailChimp or ConvertKit or whatever.