I’ve been noticing TheSmartLocal recently due to some of their articles appearing in my Facebook Newsfeed and I must admit to not only reading their articles but also sharing them. Thus, I decided to explore their main site.
I really liked the tab “Things To Do” because more often than not, a lot of us Singaporeans like to complain that ‘there isn’t anything to do’. To those people, they really ought to come to TheSmartLocal and get some ideas. I was really drawn to the title “52 Things to do in Singapore before you die” because the list maker in me is wondering how many do I have to check off.
While scrolling through, I didn’t quite agree with the list and I also thought that the title was a little OTT in order to attract attention, which it was successful in doing. Nonetheless, what I did appreciate about the article (plus other articles within the site) were the classifications/type so that readers would know whether it was appropriate for families etc.
Although some people might go “Duhhh….” but honestly, a lot of people don’t really read nowadays. They’ll just look at photos and the captions. So, by putting the category just below the photos, it would really help these folks who have short attention spans.
Another detail that I appreciated was how they also included the Price and Address of the venue. If you’re a blogger or writer, you know that it does take a bit of effort to check out the prices, the address and to type it all in. It may be easy to do for 1 location but it really is quite tiresome when you do it after the fourth time.
That line “I can read your mind” made me laugh out loud. It’s silly, I know. But it’s so easy to just keep it as “you might be interested in these” or “similar articles”, which would’ve been boring but that line really added character to the site. It also made you understand the culture and branding that TheSmartLocal aims to have – casual, local and light humour.
Oops…spotted a typo…under their article on The Most Popular Blogs In Singapore. That’s where you’ll also read a little bit of history on TheSmartLocal ;). After reading that article…um…can I still call myself a part-timer blogger?
Although it was fun as a local to read about my own country and what I can do as a local, I think it’s a great resource for visitors to Singapore (or Singaporeans who want to play tourist). Whenever I travel, I often prefer reading what the locals like to do and eat, rather than what other tourists have recommended. Thus, TheSmartLocal represents some of our Singaporean opinions (of course there will be differing views) which I think is valuable, especially if you’d like to have a more cultural experience rather than feed into tourist traps.
There are a lot of topics and interesting articles, which I obviously can’t list all, but I look forward to reading more interesting articles from TheSmartLocal!
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