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You pay them money.
They publish your work.
Traditional vanity press involves people paying to have their (usually horrible and unpublishable) novels printed and bound in a lovely hardback edition, with the author receiving enough copies (typically the entire print run) which may then be distributed to family and friends, allowing the individual to describe him/herself as a published author without perjuring themselves. Since most poets do not produce sufficient work to fill an entire volume, that's why they came up with the "you get two pages in our book" version ... (they sometimes solicit poetry through a 'contest' if you submit, you get a solicitation letter congratulating you for your honorable mention prize, but also request some amount of money for a copy of the book), the writers are really financing the production of the volume. The money is made on these things by the extra copies that are sold for additional family members.
The newest version of this is "on demand publishing" ... you upload a PDF file of your book to the "publishing house" to which you pay fees for various packages (hard/softback, standard or premium coverart, additional charges for interior illustrations, do your own layout or let them 'set' the book for you, etc.) ... If anybody wants to buy a copy the on-demand printer outputs a copy of the book, binds it in softcover or hardcover depending on the premium level selected, and mails it out.
It's supposed to be the "cutting edge" of publishing. (A friend of mine worked as a programmer for one of these on-demand publishers which found there wasn't sufficient demand for their concept. He has been unemployed for close to two years now.) It's a great idea, because all the inventory is electronic until requested ... no remainders.
It doesn't seem to be working out, though.
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