Funny to come across this thread - we just starting designing websites for mainstream customers and so many of them have asked us to put a counter on their website!
Our view is why make personal information public? I think this applies to free sites and galleries too, why do you want surfers to know how many people viewed the page?
Your host should provide more than adequate stats that you can view by signing in, we use awstats which is fantastic! Find out from your host which stats program they offer and enjoy watching your traffic from every angle.
I think this is one of the first lessons a newbie needs to learn - I put counters on my first adult porn site too.
