Are traffic exchanges the same as hit farms or banner exchanges?

Not really! Traffic exchange are membership sites that you can join (most are free) and submit your website to be rotated on a surf page for other members to see. In exchange you also have to surf pages at the surf bar or surf page. By Surfing you earn credits, bonuses or prizes you can then allocate or trade for more web traffic (rotations at the surf page). There are 2 different types of traffic exchange formats. Auto traffic exchange and manual traffic exchange. I prefer manual traffic exchange because the members really have to look at the ads or site in order to build credits.

BTW; Many traffic exchange programs also include banner advertising or banner exchange.