Why canoe builders don’t update their websites

Posted on Apr 13, 2009

In the past, as paddlers, it's always been frustrating to see canoe manufacturers with websites that are years out of date. So one of our goals in starting up a canoe building company was to keep a website with frequent updates. Now that it's been almost a year since this website has been updated, we find ourselves in the same position we had hoped to avoid: just another canoe company with an inexcusably static website.

There are all sorts of reasons that could be stated in defense of ourselves and the other builders. We advertise in print, so it's not that important to advertise online. There is already a waiting list, so why bother to update the website. Updating the website takes time and money, which is better spent investing in our product. We don't have any good photos to update the website with. The list of excuses goes on, but really none of them make the situation any better.

However, one thing is for certain, we no longer look at other manufacturers websites with that same frustration -- it's more a feeling of sympathy and respect. We've found there's a very long list of tasks necessary to build this business (or any business for that matter) and updating the website has only come to the top a few times. We would like to change that and will be doing our best to make it happen.

--Kamanu Composites