Statcounter shows different details on ur traffic. such as... which countries ur visitors are from, what sites r linking u, how many unique visitors, how many returning visitors and other such stuff...on pasting th code of statcounter the no of visitors to ur site ll be displayed on ur webpage (u can customize the look of the counter)
If one is using the free service of geocites then he/she cant show ads, so no question of being paid.
To know about the traffic of ur blog signup with statcounter or other such counter service. I prefer statcounter and use it on my blog:
www.genericsuperhero.blogspot.com
there r sites which claim to send u visitors in thousands. i hav nt tried any and google asks webmasters to steer clear of them. u can submit ur blog to different directories and also u may like to xchange ur link with other bloggers. this ll definitely boost ur search engine pagerank and also increase visitors.