Okay, big news for everyone with a WordPress blog, including people with a free blog on wordpress.com!
You can now turn *any* WordPress blog into a Fediverse server which can be followed from Mastodon etc.
I've updated the instructions on how to do this at:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/wordpress-turning-your-blog-into-a-fediverse-server/
Just to repeat, this is now available to ALL WordPress blogs including free tier ones. The free tier has slightly different instructions, but effect is same.