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Since launching our editable destination guide earlier this year, one of the most interesting challenges has been how to arrange the information in a way that makes the most sense.

Namely, what is the most important information in an article about a country, a city or some other place?

Perhaps it's because I majored in history at university, but I always like reading a bit of background about a place. So my natural approach to writing the guide articles is to start with the introduction and follow that up with some basic background information, like its history, geography, etc.

Peter, on the other hand, prefers to launch straight into the sights and activities. What is there to see and do here?

Considering there are probably many more opinions about what is the most important stuff in a travel guide, I thought I'd open up the question to you, our lovely readers:

What is the primary information you look for in a travel guide?

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Yesterday's interview on TravelBlogs was with the blogger behind Pickled Eel, who recently spent time in Iraq and Jordan on a business trip. The interview raised a few interesting questions about the appeal of travelling around dangerous places.

Yes, you read correctly. The appeal of dangerous places. Pickled Eel put it this way:

"An awareness of the risk (in Baghdad) means you are tuned into the way people live, how they are coping, who they are. And what is going on. I think it is hard being the average tourist if there is an element of risk. There is no question that Iraq is an edgy place but it is that which makes you feel very alive and tuned in to what the people around you are doing. As a result you can only come away with the most profound respect and admiration and awe for Mr Joe Iraqi Citizen for the life he is trying to recreate. You don’t feel that about the beached whales lying beside the pool in your four or five star resort. The afternoon I was back in Sydney from Iraq I was driving through pleasant leafy suburbs and found myself think how boring it all was. Nice. But boring."

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald travel blog describes a new breed of travellers who actively seek out dangerous places. While the rest of us might ask ourselves "How dangerous is too dangerous?", these travellers ask themselves the opposite question: "How dangerous is dangerous enough?"

What is your take on the concept of "danger tourism"? Have you ever travelled in a country experiencing violent conflict or war?

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We're unravelling a bunch of new features and improvements to the blogging area today. Here's a quick rundown of what has changed:

• Top navigation bar added
  
• Bookmark and share entries by email, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Del.icio.us or Iloho
  
• Table of contents added
  
• Show complete XML feeds
  
• Feedburner feeds enabled
  
• Google Analytics enabled
  
• Change the language of your blog
  
• Add links to your blog
  

Top navigation bar
If you're the one running the blog, this allows you to quickly start writing a new entry or managing your blog.

Alternatively, if you're just reading someone else's blog, you can jump to your own blog management area or control panel. You can also report suspicious looking blogs.

Bookmark and share entries
At the bottom of each post you will notice a collection of icons. These allow you to bookmark or share the entry with friends or the rest of the world:
- Email the post to a friend.
- Add the entry to StumbleUpon, a social bookmarking site.
- Add the entry to Reddit, a social bookmarking site with an emphasis on news-related topics.
- Bookmark the entry on Del.icio.us, another popular social bookmarking site.
- Share the post on Iloho, a travel site where people can submit news articles, tips or other travel-related topics.

Table of contents
At the top of your sidebar, you'll see a link to your blog's Table of Contents. This displays a list of all your blog's entries. Pretty self-explanatory really...

Feeds are shown in full
Instead of just showing a snippet of each entry, feeds are now shown in full by default. If you want to go back to just showing a snippet, you can go to your blog management area and change this under Settings.

Make your feed a Feedburner feed
Feedburner will take your Travellerspoint blog feed and turn it into a Feedburner feed. The main advantage is that this will allow you to see how many people are subscribed to your blog's feed. Check out Sam's step-by-step tutorial for creating a Feedburner feed.

Get Google Analytics on your blog
Google Analytics will allow you to take an in-depth look at who is visiting your blog - and where they're coming from. Sam has a detailed tutorial on how to start tracking your site with Analytics.

Change the language of your blog
There are quite a few blogs on Travellerspoint that are written entirely in languages other than English. Accordingly, we have translated the blog interface into four different languages: Dutch, Norwegian, Russian and Spanish. This is really useful if most or all of your readers are non-English speakers.

Add links to your blog
You can now add links to other sites from your blog - whether they're your own or other blogs you enjoy reading. To do so, click on the Manage tab in your blog management area and select Links. Note: This only becomes available to bloggers once they have made 5 posts, to prevent spammers taking advantage of this feature.

If you pick up on any problems, feel free to leave your comments below. All feedback will be much appreciated!

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Travel blogs can be short-lived affairs, about as transitory as travel itself. Or they can end up becoming a long-term journal, covering everything from quick day trips to frequent business trips.

We launched TravelBlogs about three weeks ago with 13 blogs. One of those, Paul Willis' account of a journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway, has come to an end. But luckily, we've come across another handful of great blogs to add to our collection:

• Rambling Traveler
  Most of Stacy's trips are close to her Minnesota home, and her colourful blog brings her journeys alive.

• Slow Travel
  A round the world trip without flying! Employing every mode of transport available and revelling in the slow movement through landscape, culture, people and language rather than just passing over it all in an aluminium sausage! This blog is all about the joy of slow and low carbon travel...

• Travis on Tour
  The adventures of a young traveller teaching English in South Korea.

• Reason to Wander
  Amy and Sloan are two young travellers from Oregon on a "big crazy world adventure".
  

The bloggers featured on TravelBlogs last month produced some great writing. Check out the best in the September archives.

One particular highlight was an interview with Sean Aiken, who is on a year-long mission to find a career he can be passionate about.

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Rob Meyer from Go Budget Travel has put together a great contest for anyone who wants to win $500 (USD). All you have to do is share your expertise on a travel destination of your choice.

Here's the basics:

A contest entry involves writing up a short description of an interesting “getaway” to anywhere in the world that costs under $500 (NOT including airfare). The getaway must be for a minimum of 5 days, and cannot include any inappropriate, illegal, or unethical activities (I’m talking about really bad stuff. Gambling, cock-fights, etc. are fine with me).

For an example, check out Rob's suggested 7-day itinerary for Ecuador.

The competition will closes on October 31st, so there's still plenty of time to get your submissions in.