I am launching my site sometime in the next two months after I finish a bunch of features (7 months of coding so far). But, I am going for the subscription based model mainly because I hate ads on websites, plus I think it takes away from the usefulness of my web application if i had ads on it. Do you all think it would be beneficial to "explain" why we are using the subscription model compared to an ad based model? Most people think all things on the web should be free, so it is hard to wrap around that mentallity on the net. while my site being a web application, not just a website helps with this, I think i still have a big problem with "selling" that aspect of it. granted, getting individual users to use my software isn't my intended target, it will be nice side income to corporate customers!
I wouldn't bother to explain why there's a charge. As you've stated your primary market is corporate customers. Businesses expect to pay for services and any individual users you may pick up will most likely be either A) someone who's company is using your application and they want personal access to it, so they'll expect to pay, or B) folks who're looking for something to help them accomplish whatever it is that your application does and so already realize there's a value in having access to such an application. Either way, explaining the fees for a product or service always comes across like you're trying to convince the user it's worth it. If it's a solid application that performs a needed task that isn't necessary. Good luck, Scott