No not at all. It will feed you views. Just don't go crazy with it. What I am talking about is: have you gone to a site and seen "click this and rank our site?" Which goes to a load of banners to other sites? That is what I am talking about.
I personally prefer to only buy direct links when i do SEO as in my view they are much more effective compared to link exchanges.
Sure, google "Chicago Wedding Photographer". The numer #1 site got there primarily on link exchange with some directory submital.