How do big established websites pick up hundreds of thousands of links?

[qwestcommunications]

Even though they do not go on a link building campaign. Is this through their reputation?

[my3cents]

It is all about good, original content. If you have that, folks will find your site and link to it regardless of a link campaign effort.

This also does not happen overnight. It could take years. Everyone always complains about how google puts so much weight on the age of a site, but what many folks don't think about is that great sites and great content don't usually happen overnight, it takes time. And google understands this.

[Seiya]

Well especially new webmasters and sites that dont care about their outbound links will provied links for free to sites that they find interesting...

[Brad Callen]

Either very controversial writing,

Previously an authority figure (ie matt cutts)

Write extremely good content that is usefull

Its all about being different and creating a website that is sticky, and that people want to view.

Brad

[TheException]

Links to good sites related to your topic is a good part of any informative website. Sometimes visitors go to a site on a regular basis, just because they have such a good collection of links to sites that interest them. Sometimes putting together a good list of sites that people will want to visit can be a good portion, or even all of, the content of a website.