Reciprocal link exchanges will benefit your site, (regardless of what other SEO's may tell you - in regard to Google's Jagger update) as long as the sites you are linking to have a decent ranking, a decent ranking is anything over 4/10. Make sure your site has a resources page that you can dedicate to adding quality links, in return for them adding your site to their resource page.
Naturally it is better to have all your links pointing to sites of relevance, but don't ignore non-industry-related sites, as long as they have a really good ranking it will be worthwhile having them listed. Although, for your users benefit, try and keep it as relevant as possible.
Ensure that their resource page has a ranking of at least 4/10, is also good if their index page has a similar ranking as it is all spider'd. Avoid putting banners on other sites; although this is a good advertising method, it is not as beneficial as a text link. Text links will have keywords in it to help Google recognise the quality of the link.
One Way links
Here is the REAL benefit to your site. Aside from quality content, this is the next thing that will ensure your site of a high listing within Google. One Way links are links from other sites which link to you, but you do not link back to them. Straight forward enough. However, be sure they are REAL one-way links. Some companies offer one way links, but then you find that all those links actually come from one IP address. This is disastruous. Make sure that each link comes from seperate IP addresses, you can check the IP address of any link here.
It can be difficult to get such links. People usually link to a site if they offer something valueable, such as an interesting article or a free tool. Offering such things will make sure you can increase your one way links free of charge.