My Ponoko Account: 30 April, 2008 – 12 May, 2013

I’ve been a member of Ponoko for almost as long as I’ve had CNCKing.com and operated the largest showroom on their site (over 300 items at its peak) for years but I’ve decided to close my account there and deleted all my designs from their site.

Ponoko was a great idea and its concept of distributed manufacturing was a revelation to me in so many ways back in 2008. I got my start there, the community there helped edge me on as I built my own brand, I won a few contests and saw the potential. Their customer service is top knotch (special mention to Josh) and are the people working for them (Guy is great at blogs!) I even applied to work there years ago but things have changed and I’ve evolved over the years.

For the past few years, I’ve been pushing the digital front! I’m also focused my business almost entirely on people WITH CNC machines, be that laser cutters, table routers, plasma cutters or 3D printers. Ponoko is a fantastic resource but it has suffered in my opinion from the same fate as Thingiverse… passionate community throwing a bunch of designs up with little traction or interaction – so many people give-up after designing one or two models! I’ve never understood how people can base their entire “hopes and dreams” on their first few models… I designed over 20 before I even got my first sale!

I’ve reviewed my traffic logs and steadily through the years, Ponoko has given me less and less traffic, to the point now where they literally only represent a fraction of a (one) percent. I’ve generated one sale there in the past year I think (don’t remember) yet I generate sales everyday with my site – the move to digital is strong and I’m riding the wave! I don’t use them for cutting either as I’ve built-up my own distributed cutting network using my own customers!

Their user interface in unmanageable for a showroom of my size – I told management this 4 years ago and wrote a massive e-mail telling them exactly what they need to do to improve it – it fell on deaf ears and they’ve kept the same tired interface since I’ve joined! One of those ideas was to allow YouTube embeds on my product page, something I really wanted to do to increase sales, they never implemented it so I built my own site and have benefited tremendously from it! Try updating anything in your showroom and you’ve got to click half a dozen times – this problem existed in 2008 and guess what, continues to this day 5 years later!

I’ve been growing increasingly disillusioned with the lack of vision and innovation on the site – I saw the writing on the wall years ago but kept it to myself hoping they would eventually upgrade things. They haven’t. How can you maintain the same user interface for 5 years? You can’t… unless you don’t listen to your members. So much has changed since then… you can either keep selling horses or get into cars. They were the first to introduce digital file downloads, at first, I was incredibly apprehensive about it, fearing one person would buy a file and share it on a billion sites – but I came around to their way of thinking… though that too has stumbled on their site. Great ideas… no follow-through!

I remember when Ponoko’s forums where a place to be, designers would share and talk about ideas for laser cutters – it was a vibrant place, it was no longer and I lost interest. When they started the blog, there were lot of interactions, that has died (not that my blog gets much interaction but it’s a different kind of site). Although I see massive potential in the Ponoko model if they revamped several areas of their online business, I feel like its been left to languish, they were once a design community, the hub of design innovation – no longer. How many times have the founders reached-out to me to see if there was something we could work together on? Once, and that was because I was canceling my membership with them! I was their biggest showroom with the largest profile and I can’t even think of a time they sent me an e-mail saying “cool” or “let’s figure something out” or “we’d like your opinion”… that’s SAD! They’ve grown a lot since I was a member, not sure if that’s the cause of it but I just don’t feel the passion or the drive they use to have.

I’d send them e-mails saying we got to work on something and nothing ever happened. I mention them to designers and that initial enthusiasm isn’t there and their name recognition has wavered. I’m not sure what’s going on but it’s no longer a place I feel wanted or welcome. These are just my personal opinions from being an active member there for years – I believe a little constructive criticism is what they need. Ponoko has changed through the years, but not for the better member wise.

So, they aren’t generating sales, traffic nor am I using their services – based purely on the numbers, I don’t quite see the point of maintaining a presence there so I’ve deleted all my files and asked them to delete my account. I was among their first PRIME members, now I’m among the many who have given-up and moved onto greener pastures.

I’ve been feeling like something is broken in their business model for the past 2 years but only time will tell if my gut instinct is right… I personally hope its wrong and they get their mojo back! They have so much potential… just lack the execution and drive they once had. When Ponoko first started, the vision was grand and so was the promise.

I wish the entire Ponoko team and Derek & David the best of luck with their business – Ponoko has helped me out tremendously through the years and I will forever owe them my gratitude as, without Ponoko, there most likely never would have been a CNCKing.com as you see today.