Any input appreciated on business plan..NEW

hey all, i'm new to the forum and to web development. I had no idea what PPC, affiliate ads, any of that stuff was a few months ago. I'm not dumb, it just never occurred to me to figure out how the internet works. No real interest in computers and software. That all changed when I had about a million hours a day at home doing nothing unemployed for a while, I utilized the down time to learn as much as I can. Taught myself html, css, a little bit of javascript, some php (but need a reference to read code still) and been working a business plan to launch a website.

what was originally going to be a blog or a test website to dip my feet in the water and get hands on experience on working w/ ads and what not... evolved into a bigger and broader startup goal. I used to work for a startup that was backed by AOL (media publishing co) and learned a bit from that.

Basically, me and a potential friend/partner are looking into delivering a web 2.0 website. However, anything web 2.0 is a bit out of our knowledge and expertise ATM. both of us, if we watch someone work or someone explains it to us once, we learn fast. but the learning curve on this stuff is so steep, i need a starting point. I've been reading hours on end about drupal, joomla, WP capabilities and though they have good extensions and add-ons, they dont really have the capability of delivering a customized web 2.0 type website. the best I've seen is jomsocial at this point.

The website will be primarily user based with lots of uploading. Uploading of photos, videos, documents are a must by each user to their own account, able to customize, edit, rename the files as they wish.
That would be the bulk of the website requirement. When i say "edit", i dont mean photoshop, but a built in GOOD word editor or picture resizer would be essential. User's ability to set privacy settings are also a must.

I am coming to the conclusion that joomla will not be able to support something like this. What would be a good platform for this type of website? Because it will need custom features, would I be better off hiring someone to start it from scratch or is it possible to lay the groundwork myself with the domain, hosting, some foundation software/platform, graphics and icons, and then have someone come in and tweak everything to my needs? (i dont want to waste all the time doing it if its not going to work with the developer's method)
*cost/pricing is the most important factor
With this type of website, what am I looking at in terms of initial costs? To build the website (Based on the description above), the hosting fees (no idea about fees or how much storage i would require as well as speeds)

I want to know if its even a feasible project .. we def cant do it if it's going to cost like $10,000 initially and more later on.

ANY input greatly appreciated. i'm still learning so flame suit stays on.

 

What content is going to be on the website?

 

No content ATM if you are asking about publishing content. Any content that will be on the website is what the user uploaded. I want the user to be able to upload and organize whatever he/she uploaded in an easy manner with built in editors and resizers, folders, etc.

basically will be a subscription membership type where there is a landing page, nice and secure login page > user's account to do whatever they want. I dont even know what these kind of websites are called.. is it just membership pages? account management websites?

The best example I can think of that isnt entirely accurate is a bank of america online banking or something but not as crazy and costing millions, NOR would it need to be that complex.

 

So what is your business model, cause I'm confused?