How To Put Widgets Above Blogger Posts
More Blogging Tips!
This tutorial is for those people using Blogger.com who want to install a widget between their header and blog post sections. It's quite easy to do, as I'll show you in a minute -- but first I'd like to talk about why you might want to use that section for widgets, and what sort of widgets you might want to put there. Why is this better than simply sticking a widget above your blogpost section? Because the widget will only be the width of that blogpost. If you want it to span the entire mid section from sidebar to blogpost, you will need to place your widget above both. So... what can you put in this area? Let's take a look:
Adsense Code
If you'd like to install a block of adsense ads above your blog posts and your sidebar columns, a widget in the blogger cross column section works quite nicely. Once the cross column section is activated, simply click "add a gadget" and install your new widget in precisely the same manner you'd have added a gadget to your sidebar.
Other ad codes
This probably goes without saying, but you can install any types of code here, not just adsense.
Horizontal Menu Bars
This is the best place for a horizontal menu, as you can put it anywhere, as opposed to limiting its width to the blog post section's width.
Countdown calendars, Upcoming Events
Depending on your layout, this can be a great place to get your calendars noticed, as well as upcoming events you might want people to take note of as soon as they land on your blog.
And anything else you can think of!
Anything that can go on your sidebar can go in this section, as long as it's not too big, obviously!
How to Do It:
Like I said, this is very, very easy to do. You will need to go into the HTML of your template first, so do back your blogger template up before starting.
Step 1: Go to your Dashboard
Step 2: Dashboard > Layout > Edit HTML
Step 3: Once in the HTML, click "Expand Widget Templates"
Step 4: Find this section: <div id='content-wrapper'>
Step 5: Find this code beneath it: <b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='no'/>
Step 6: Change that 'no' to 'yes'
Since the changes will be in your Page Elements section, you can't really Preview it -- but I suggest previewing all the same, to be sure you don't get any error messages due to inadvertent typos on your part. If everything looks ok, you ought to be able to go straight to your Page Elements section and see "Add a Gadget" above your blog post section now.
Step 7: Add widgets! And enjoy your new cross column section!