Latest from Ponoko

And there’s 2 of these that are worth a special mention …

It’s here! Our new Designmake Prime service is available right now. Lock in fantastic making and shipping costs, get priority making, use almost unlimited materials and more.

I am so ready for this
Be one of the first 100 subscribers who get their first 30 days subscription to Prime for FREE. (Plus our special launch offer – only available for 7 days).

Get it now!

Hey – back up a little!
Okay, let’s recap. What’s this Designmake Prime all about?

Well, you know the Ponoko story. We invented ‘make & sell online from scratch’. Since then, we got talked about in places like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, BBC News, Techcrunch, Boing Boing, MIT Technology Review, ICON Magazine, WIRED Magazine, Readymade Magazine, Core77, Designboom, Treehugger and so many more (puff puff!). And over 10,000 designers like you have made hundreds of thousands worth of goods using Ponoko. But here’s the thing. They were using the old version.

Now Designmake Prime takes you to the next level!
Designmake Prime is a new subscription service that bundles together a heap of exclusive benefits:

• Unleash your unique creativity with designer materials – Make something that is really different and stands out from the crowd! With Prime you can use almost any material you request. So long as we can source it and cut it, you can use it.

• Get in front of big name retailers – On-demand supply is THE way to go for retailers right now – they’re facing tough times so they want great products from great designers manufactured and delivered just in time. Prime can help you build a hands-off business AND get your designs really noticed by promoting them to over 200 US retail design stores. (Just ask Zach Thomas and Corey Daniels. They designed 2 lamps, made and marketed them with Ponoko and we got them listed with major West Coast retailer, Velocity Art and Design).

• Jump the queue to speed things up – If you want things to go faster this is how you do it. As a Prime user, your orders will be sent to the top of our making queue and processed first.

• Get designer grade support – We’ll give you all the help you need with ideas of what to make, how best to make it and how best to market it. Participate in expert webinars on designing, making and marketing. Talk or chat to us on Skype whenever you need help to work something out. The great thing is we talk your creative design language, not technical engineering language (but we have that too if you need it).

• Get it right before you order – You’ll get one-on-one support before you order to make sure your design is good to go. We’ll take away any worries about submitting something that won’t work by putting your design files through a 6-point check before you push go.

• Earn buyer trust – Get the badge of credibility. Potential customers are more likely to buy from you with confidence when you display our ‘Certified Shop’ badge in your showroom. The ‘Certified Shop’ program is only available to Prime users.

• Generate business leads to create new things – Ponoko ID makes it possible for anyone to get their idea custom made by a pro designer. As a Prime user, you’ll get priority access to bid on these product requests before they’re released to everyone else.

• Save lots of money when you make things – Drop making costs from $2.00 to $0.73 per minute. (Remember this is a special launch offer – it goes up to $1.35 per minute after 7 days). This is perfect if you:
  • make a single item for about $50-$70 or more, or
  • make things every 6 weeks or so, or
  • want to lock in the super low cost for bigger jobs every few months, or
  • want to sell at the very best price or the very best profit margin, or
  • want to make a lot more stuff than you’re making now.

• Kill your shipping costs – Drop packaging costs from $10.00 to $3. (Again, this is a special launch offer – it goes up to $5 after 7 days). It’s perfect if you’re in the US. It’s also a big plus if you’re in the EU. (We’ve been told by our EU and Asian customers that our prices match or better local suppliers, even at our current shipping costs. Prime will make the numbers stack up even better with 63.5% off the making rate and 70% off packaging!)

What Prime can do for you … in your own words
Earlier this week, we asked you what you will use Prime to do. The answers came flooding in.

I’ll be able to:

• “… offer more affordable prices to my customers”
• “… try different materials at affordable costs“
• “… grow my hand-made goods business faster … by introducing some mechanization and greater precision into what I make“
• “… save a bit of money on prototypes [which] will make “getting it right” so much easier!“
• “… earn a living and be able to live anywhere I want“

And there were many more!

Prime comes with all the benefits you expect from Ponoko
Designmake Prime offers all the benefits you get with our original service, Designmake Free:

• One place to do it all – Make and market your product ideas to the world in the least time with the least cost and the most payback available – anywhere! Save 90% of the time and 50% of the cost of anywhere else to make and market your product ideas.

• Instant products – Get your idea manufactured with zero setup fees and no minimum orders. (Small orders welcome here!) Make things to fit your own very specific needs – even make gifts for your friends or sell to the world.

• Instant online store – Promote unlimited designs and products and collect money online with zero per item listing fees and zero sales success fees.

• Instant sales – Chris Jackson went from idea to first sale in just 16 days! And Alan Chao did it in just 24 days! (Look out for Alan’s coasters for sale on Veer.com in December.) We get you from idea to prototype to product to first customers to retailers to mass market – one end to the next.

“I will use Prime to make my ideas come to life. And to squeal with delight at the steady stream of Ponoko packages at my door. It’s totally like Christmas.”

How much will this cost me?
Here’s the pricing for Designmake Free and Designmake Prime.

You’ll see two options for Prime. That’s because, for the next 7 days only, we’re offering you a special deal. After 7 days, Prime pricing will switch to the standard rate. The special launch rate will never be offered again.

“Prime will make a huge difference to me. I’ll be prototyping the hundreds of ideas I already have that I’d put on hold due to cost.”

Get your first 30 days of Prime for FREE
Here’s one more reason to say yes to Prime today. The first 100 people who sign up will get a 30-day free trial. It’s a no-charge, no risk opportunity to test it out to make sure it’s right for you. For 30 days, you can request materials, get low rates, get in front of design stores – and if it’s not for you into the future – just hit the one-click cancel button in your account and you won’t be charged a thing in subscription fees.

This means you have absolutely NOTHING to lose by signing up to Prime right now right now!

“No one else is offering this type of service with so many options at a low price. I’ve looked.” (This person should be on our marketing team :-))

Go to it! Have fun.

We’re just over 12 hours away from launch. So we’ve collected together a bunch of questions everyone has asked over the last little while and planted the answers to them here.

If you have questions that are not covered below please ask them here.

So here you go:

When does Prime launch – is it a respectable hour for everyone around the world?
Prime launches at 2:00pm Thursday November 20th US Eastern time. See details here.

How do I buy Prime? Where will I find the signup link for Prime?
The signup link will be posted on this blog (in a new post) at this time. And an email including a link to this new blog post will be sent to everyone who subscribed to be a part of this ‘Latest Group’. To buy Prime just click on that signup link and follow your nose to fill out your details, etc.

How long is this special sign-up period before it goes to full price?
This super launch deal is available for 7 days from launch, and the first 100 people will get a 30-day free trial period too. After the first 100 the free 30 days is not available and after 7 days all Prime pricing goes up.

Will the $22 per month launch offer be ongoing?
The $22/month + $0.73/minute making + $3 packaging deal is yours ongoing if you get it during the 7 day launch period. If you cancel and/or subscribe for Prime after this period you will pay the $39/month + $1.35/minute making + $5 packaging rate.

Will stainless steel, aluminum and brass be available when Prime launches? Will their cost info be available immediately as well?
Yes. And yes.

What are the costs for international packaging with Prime?
ALL Prime packaging is at $5 wherever the package is being shipped (or $3 if you subscribe to Prime during the 7 day launch period).

Is there a minimum contract term?
No. Nor is there a signup fee or upgrade fee. It’s a month-to-month service that you can cancel at any time (with no cancellation fee). We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for everyone to participate.

Does Prime apply to anything I want to make?
Prime is for anything you want to make or make and sell using our Designmake service.

Does the Prime per minute making price apply to metals?
No. Metals will be cut at the Designmake Free plan price. The reason for this is that metals is a new manufacturing process for us and we need to test it all out before we get bold with our pricing for it - but it’s a brilliant price at the current Designmake Free plan level anyhow! Rest assured that all other materials fall within the Prime per minute making price. And you will pay the lower Designmake Prime plan packaging costs for shipping your metal creations too.

Will I need to re-upload my designs in my existing Designmake Free account to get the new Prime pricing applied to them?
No. If you have design files in your existing Ponoko Designmake (free) account, each of them will be automatically re-priced without you needing to do anything.

Any chance you’ll add leather, titanium, polypropelene, glass, cork, and… and….
As a Prime subscriber you’ll be able to request any material you like and if we can source it and cut it, you’re on!

Do I have to sell via Ponoko to use Prime?
No. You can use Prime to make things only, or make and sell elsewhere. But if you want your things to be promoted to design stores for retail, yes you will have to sell via Ponoko. Note that selling on Ponoko does not stop you from selling elsewhere too. And be aware that it cost you nothing to set up an e-commerce online store on Ponoko and you can list an unlimited number of items for free and pay zero sales success fees too!

Is there a annual discount for Prime?
No, not at this stage.

Does Prime exclude any country?
No. It is for everyone in the world (this includes Canada).

Can I pay using PayPal?
No. Payment methods at this time are VISA or MasterCard. Other methods, like Paypal, are in the works.

Will I be sent a receipt upon my own monthly anniversary or every calendar month?
You will receive a payment receipt every month you remain subscribed, on the anniversary of the date you signed up. You can cancel at any time and you will not be billed again.

So you’ve improved US shipping costs, but what about international shipping?
Transporting lumps of material around the world seems to be an expensive thing. Try as we might to find a low cost shipping partner, it’s tough going. And to ensure all our shipping costs are as low as possible we have set it up so that we do not make any money on shipping! There’s nothing more we’d like to do than to be in a position to provide everyone in the world with low shipping rates. And the realistic way we do this is via a distributed manufacturing network. Now we’re just a tiny team and so we’re focused on the US market just now, but please hang in there with us – we are getting closer to opening international nodes to knock shipping costs, and carbon miles, on the head. 

And as a final note on international shipping costs – we find it interesting that some of our customers in the EU and Asia tell us that it cost them less to order from us (including the shipping costs) than it does from local suppliers! So Prime promises to make the numbers stack up even better with 63.5% off the making rate and 70% off the packaging!

What does Prime mean for someone like me who is not interested in selling products but just wants a one-off project made?
Prime saves you money if your one off project totals about $50 - $70 or more. You also benefit if you want to request unique materials that are not included in our online catalog,  one-to-one advice before you commit and hit the make button, you want your order to jump the queue and go to the top of the list, or if you want to get a free quote for your DXF design files.

Can Prime services be used in conjunction with coupons you periodically make available?
Coupons for Designmake Free users will not be able to be used by Designmake Prime subscribers.

How do I get my products assembled, packaged and shipped into retail design stores using Prime?
At this stage if you wish to sell into retail using Prime, your product needs to be designed to be flat packed for self assembly by your customers. And we work with you to get the pricing, packaging and shipping details just right.

Are stainless steel, aluminum and brass available to Prime users only, or everyone?
They are available to everyone. If you want to request other materials (including other metals) you will want to be a Prime subscriber.

Does Designmake Prime include a ‘make preview’ like the one in Photomake?
No. But with the Prime pre-purchase one-on-one expert design consultation you’ll to get a 6-point design file report before you commit and make an order.

Phew! That about do it for now.

And remember, if you have questions that are not covered below please ask them here.