Count Words using tinymce in the front-end

i am using a front built in (article directory plugin) tinymce with wp_editor.
what ever i tried i cant get the word counter to work automatically..

i can count the words fine in the HTML tab using a jquery word counter but not
in the wysisyg tab since its an iframe…

i got some new white hairs dealing with this issue and would really appreciate
your input / help or even a gr8 reference to a solution.

Here is the code i currently have (relevant part of the page) including
the jquery counter which i would rather not use and would rather use wordpress
or to be precise tinymce build in plugin / ability to count words as if inside the dashboard.

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
    $("[class^='count[']").each(function() {
        var elClass = $(this).attr('class');
        var minwords = 0;
        var maxWords = 0;
        var countControl = elClass.substring((elClass.indexOf('['))+1, elClass.lastIndexOf(']')).split(',');

        if(countControl.length > 1) {
            minwords = countControl[0];
            maxWords = countControl[1];
        } else {
            maxWords = countControl[0];
        }   

        $(this).after('<div class="wordcount"><strong>0</strong> Words</div>');
        if(minwords > 0) {
            $(this).siblings('.wordcount').addClass('errorwords');
        }   

        $(this).bind('keyup click blur focus change paste', function() {
            var numWords = jQuery.trim($(this).val()).split(' ').length;
            if($(this).val() === '') {
                numWords = 0;
            }   
            $(this).siblings('.wordcount').children('strong').text(numWords);

            if(numWords < minwords || (numWords > maxWords && maxWords != 0)) {
                $(this).siblings('.wordcount').addClass('errorwords');
            } else {
                $(this).siblings('.wordcount').removeClass('errorwords');   
            }
        });
    });
});

</script>
<?php
        wp_print_scripts('quicktags');
        require_once(ABSPATH . '/wp-admin/includes/post.php');
        function richedit() { return true; }
        add_filter('user_can_richedit', 'richedit');
            //wp_tiny_mce( false, array( 'height' => '370' ) );
        if ($options['default_editor'] == 'html') {
            add_filter( 'wp_default_editor', create_function('', 'return "html";') );
        } else {
            add_filter( 'wp_default_editor', create_function('', 'return "tinymce";') );
        }
        wp_editor($_POST['post'], 'minword' , array('textarea_name' => 'minword', 'editor_class' => 'count[50,0]'));
    } else {
        echo '<style type="text/css">#quicktags {display:none}</style>';
        wp_editor($_POST['post'], 'minword' , array('textarea_name' => 'minword', 'editor_class' => 'count[50,0]'));
    }
?>

.

REVISED TO BETTER EXPLAIN @bueltge AND OTHER’S MY PROBLEM…
i have uploaded a temp version online so i can show you the problem.

The website is in hebrew so you need to login
with the demo user / pass combination which is: temp / temp

Url: HERE

Then Click the last button meaning the first from the left…
there you would see the editor. trying to write it would results
with the chars counter not changing but if you click the HTML tab you
would see the chars counter is working..

So.. How can i get the counter to count when in wysisyg mode?

this example uses the code buelge suggested which a minor change
to the id – here is the revised top two lines which i have changed

var comment_input = $( '#articleSubmit textarea' );
var submit_button = $( '#articleSubmit #submit' );

A while later i decided to try it again… (needed it for a project)
this time i went for clean jquery and i got it to work!

here it is:
the working & easy to use way to count words while
they are being written inside a wp_editor both in the
html editor and visual editor.

<script type="text/javascript">
i=0;
$(document).ready(function(){
    // visual mode
    // the iframe id
    $("#description_ifr").ready(function () {
        setInterval(function(){
            var tinymceval = $('#description_ifr').contents().find('body').text();
            var wordscount = tinymceval.split(" ");
                    // you should crete a div with the 
                    // the id = #wordcount to show count
            $("#wordcount").text(wordscount.length);
        }, 5000)
    });

    // html mode
// #description is the id of the text area
    $("#description").keypress(function(){
        $("#wordcount").text(i+=1);
    });
}); 
</script>

Thanks for eveyone’s help 😉