Some coders like to encode their own links into the footer. This trick will help you get decode the code in footer.php and make it editable.
In your index.php find the line that says <?php get_footer(); ?>. Above and below it add marker text like this:
<!-- footer starts here -->
<?php get_footer(); ?>
<!-- footer ends here -->
Now visit your blog, View source and copy the HTML between those two markers. Paste that code into footer.php and make it nice and editable.
Enjoy an editable footer!