Making money through links? NEWB

I've had one frontpage deal, and I surf on SD as a hobby mostly, but occasionally I buy something I really don't need just like the rest of us.

I have a ton of fun surfing the deals but I'm wondering if I'm missing the big picture with the "links" that I see popup up when I click on some of the deals.

You know- you click someone's deal, and it goes through about 2 hoops before the ACTUAL page comes up.

Is there money to be made there? Can I join some type of referer program and make money from good, legitimate deal links that I find and post?

And if you know how to do this would you even tell me? Would I be more competition?? lol

I'm sure this is a very obvious answer but know nothing about how this all works.
Thanks for any info.