I am finding it very frustrating as modules just don't work out of the box and almost always need tweaking and I'm new to this.

I have uploaded the Newsletter module. It says the next step is to add ...

In the _config.php, add: Email::setAdminEmail();{php} (This is the email address the newsletters are sent from. It can be overwritten on a per-type basis.)

If you have created a custom member class for the site, substitute it with the following line in the _config.php file: Object::useCustomClass("Member", "");{php}

When I add the the first code I get:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '}' in /var/sites/h/homelesshounds.org.uk/public_html/silverstripe-labs-silverstripe-newsletter-dd2e5a0/_config.php on line 17

Am trying to do the following but I don't have a templates file in my sites?

Templates are created in mysite/templates/email. So for example, if you created Newsletter.ss inside mysite/templates/email then the Newsletter system will recognise this new .ss file and let you select it in the dropdown.

This currently goes against the convention of keeping templates inside themes/yourtheme/templates/email. If you want to keep you templates inside the themes/yourtheme/templates/email folder rather then the default mysite/template/email then you need to set this line in your mysite/_config file

:::php
// set email template folder to themes/mytemplate/templates/email
NewsletterAdmin::$template_paths = "themes/mytemplate/templates/email";