MSPWS hit counter methodology

I'm trying to configure a hit counter to run on Microsoft Peer Web Services. Right now, I'm using a Perl cgi script that runs when the page loads to generate a javascript file. The .js file is read as the html is parsed to insert the hit count number at the bottom of the page. This isn't very efficient (the cgi takes longer to make the .js file than the html takes to parse and call the .js file, so the number lags by one), but I want to find a solution which would involve neither renaming files (all pages/links on the server are .html and should stay that way, so I can't rename them to .cgi or .shtml) or changing the majority of the pre-existing content (so having a cgi script generate the whole page just for the counter at the bottom is not viable). Server-side includes seem like the most logical answer, but I don't know if I can use them (I have to check with the administrator to see if .html can be configured to have include statements), so I was wondering if there's a more direct method than the one I'm using that will cleanly generate the counter.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Edit: solved a problem myself!