Moving blocks around in magento

footer.phtml

<!-- Whichever template you are editing add the following code referncing the new block -->

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('footer_menu'); ?> 
<!-- This above is the correct method using the getChildHtml function -->
 
<?php echo $this->getLayout()->createBlock('cms/block')->setBlockId('my-new-block')->toHtml(); ?> 
<!-- This above is the incorrect method hardcoding cms blocks -->
 

local.xml

<!-- FIND THE RELEVANT PART OF THE RELEVANT XML LAYOUT YOU NEED -->

<!-- Copy it into your local xml -->
<reference name="footer">
    <!-- If creating a new block for use in layout - set a name, use type="core/templates" -->
    <block type="core/templates" name="footer_menu" as="footer_menu" translate="label">
        <label>Footer Menu</label>
    </block>
    <!-- In this example we will have a new block region in layouts named footer_menu -->
</reference>