Making Connections and Trades to Build Residual Income Streams

So, I was listening to podcasts 406 and 407 recently, and it was mentioned that a lot of residual incomes is building connections. One of the examples in these podcasts was about trading thread boost or ads on permies.com about someone's website or stuff in exchange for them giving shout-outs or mentions about permies.com affiliate program products that their viewers might enjoy and want to purchase.

Just for clarity's sake, there isn't anything wrong with people doing that kind of wheeling and dealing, like that example that was mentioned. Right?

For example, if I purchased thread boost or ads for Mother Earth News on permies.com and traded that for them giving shout-outs about some permies.com affiliate program products, this would be perfectly acceptable? I just want to make sure this is an okay thing to do, before I get up the nerve to do this.