For those of you who use the WP Premium theme (the one I’m currently using), you may have noticed that the section to the right in the sidebar (the one in this picture) has a “Recent Posts” section built in that can’t be changed with widgets. However, after some digging, since I’m still new to this, I found out how to make it widgetized so that you can throw widgets in there. Here are the steps:

1. Go to Presentation > Theme Editor in your WordPress administration screen. Click on “Sidebar” on the right. Look for the following:

<div id="popular">
<ul>

2. UNDER that ADD:

<?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar(3) ) : else : ?>

3. Now look for:

</ul>
<div id="popular-bottom"></div>

4. ABOVE that ADD:

<?php endif; ?>

5. Hit “Update File” and then click on “functions.php”

6. Look for:

register_sidebars(2);

7. CHANGE it to:

register_sidebars(3);

9. Hit “Update File” and you’re done. Go to Presentation > Widgets and you should see a 3rd widget column now. Put anything you want in it.

NOTES:

• The plugin I use for the countdown for my contest is: KB Countdown Widget
• The plugin I use for the Top Posts section is: WordPress Reports. It also does cool stuff with Google Analytics and Feedburner. Just make sure to follow the install instructions properly.
• The Recommendations section is actually a random quote plugin and it gives me a way to show my gratitude for all those people who have left me recommendations on Entrecard with a random back link. The plugin is: Quotes Collection. If you use it and want the back links, you have to put a coded link in the author’s field (i.e. <a href="author's site address">Author's Site Title</a>).
• Final note: Lis of About Every Little Thing pointed me to this great article on how to fix the subscribe box at top to work with Feedburner: Using Feedburner in WP Bliss

Related Posts:

• A Quick Update
• The MWF Read - 03/14/2008
• 2048 Entrecard Credits (Contest is Over)
• Robot Theft for Webmasters
• The Daily Read - 01/15/2008