But then want to change the color for links when they are in the footer:

Probably because you are looking at links that you've already visited.

a:link {...}   only applies to links to pages not already in your browser's history.  If you want those styles to apply to all links, just use    a {...}

If you want different style for new and visited links, use both   a:link {...}   and   a:visited {...}.   There is also   a:active {...}   for how the link looks as it's being clicked.