Google thinks that if a really popular site links to your site that your site must contain useful information.
eg. My brother has a site all about typography (he's mad into fonts

) somehow he managed to get his site mentioned on microsoft.com. Because of this he now gets a huge number of hits.
So the best way is to create a site with a lot of useful information and keywords, then get slashdot.org to link to it.
I've wondered if I become a member of slashdot and use my own website URL whether I will get some 1) People clicking on the link 2) Extra credits from Google rasing the profile of the site.