Magento: Show Static block on left or right side of page in Magento

In Magento CMS pages if you want to show Static CMS Blocks on left/right side, following is simple code to do it.

Following is syntax for left column

<reference name="left">
<block type="cms/block" name="name_of_block" before="-" >
<action method="setBlockId"><block_id>id_of_block</block_id></action>
</block>
</reference>

and here is for right coloum:

<reference name="right">
<block type="cms/block" name="name_of_block" before="-" >
<action method="setBlockId"><block_id>id_of_block</block_id></action>
</block>
</reference>