First to solve the “unwanted users”, you need to go into the settings of your blog and under “General” you need to unclick the box that says “Anyone can register” next to “Membership”. and Under “Discussion”, make sure you have the “moderate comments” checked. This really helps with a lot of the spam. Okay, have Akismet plugin in place helps too But to start on the dashboard, this would be the place.

As for the footer, you need to make the changes IN the “footer”. I don’t use the Genesis framework, but I am going to assume that they have a “Theme Options” under “Appearance” like WPMU themes does. Look for the “footer” section and make your changes there. Ideally, you should be able to make some of the changes you want there. also check your widgets .. sometimes the info is there. 

I personally never use the blogroll or the “meta” box — it may be the “meta” box you need to change as well for the footer.

Good luck! I love your site by the way!! great information!!! and I like the WAHP concept, as there are a lot of dads at home now

@kristi-hines Thanks so much Kristi, I’ll give that a whirl.

@kimberlylosavio Thanks for your comments too. I have done everything you’ve said already but Genesis footer info doesn’t show in the theme info under “appearance.” It’s a bit funny that way. Oh, and thanks heaps for your comments. I’ve spent a lot of time joujiing up the website in the past couple of weeks to make it more user friendly.

@kristi-hines Yes, it does take some getting used to. I nearly screwed up my whole site the other day trying to add a new widget area in the functions.php. Got a lecture from hubby about not backing up (He’s in IT). Lesson learned.

@casmccullough an even easier way to achieve this than Simple Hooks is Simple Edits:

http://www.studiopress.com/plugins/simple-edits