Yeah, making backups less convenient for free users really wouldn't be ideal. What I hope is that the backup/export feature won't be as much of a load on the site as say, user pics. So everyone would have access to a basic, complete yearly or "the whole thing" backup of their journal, and then paid users could get way more granular options than backups by month or whatnot. I'm thinking backups by tag, by security setting, etc etc, which would be really cool. Then again, if exports turn out to be really database intensive, there will have to be some way to limit who can access it and how often.

Also, a cut tag would be great as well for hiding some of the instructions. It would blend in nicely, and allow the second page of the process to just be given over to reporting errors, showing you what exactly you should be getting in the export file, etc.