[El Scorcho]

Am I barking up the wrong tree with Joomla based on what I am looking to achieve?

Joomla seems to be the go-to application for what (it sounds like to me) you're trying to do.

If you want to play with it, let me know. I think it's around three clicks for me to install Joomla on this server so you could use a side site on FlameFans to get some hands-on time.