People typically won’t link a webpage because they most likely WON’T READ a college dissertation online. Dumb it down folks! Dumb your content down!
Why Your Harvard-Educated Writer Doesn’t Attract Links – Search Marketing News Blog – Search Engine Watch (SEW).

How often do we run into people who have spent a considerable amount of money on their website to “look good” yet can’t be found on Google? It seems practically every day. Maybe it is that people simply don’t like to write or don’t want to write any more. People seem to have forgotten why people visit web pages in the first place! The last time I checked, a heavy amount of internet users are literate and read much more than the average non-internet user. So what has happened to the content? Where is there any written text on these new fangled web pages? If there are no words, how can Google find you?!?!? Google doesn’t have eyes and can’t directly “see” a photo. at least not yet. but this should be decades away… I think… People please write more information on your websites! Be creative and be found!