Some Sort Of Counter

I wonder if the following is even possible :

Suppose I have a page with a set of hyperlinks on it. Each time a hyperlink
is clicked a new window is opened. What i basically want is the following :
I want a counter at the client side which increments each time the user
clicks one of those links. At the bottom of the page I'll put a button
which should be used to send the value of the counter away.

The problem is I only know server side scripting and have no idea on how to
implement such a counter on the client side. I even wonder if it's possible
to detect when a link is clicked. The links may be buttons if that would
make it easier, it's just that i don't want to reload the page each time a
link is clicked but only at the end when the button at the bottom would be
clicked.