How to make sure you get great Black Friday deals

Going into stores, you'd think that the holiday shopping season starts before Halloween, with the way they move out costumes and move in decorations and wrapping paper. When it comes to gift buying, however, savvy shoppers have one day in their sights: Black Friday.

The day after Thanksgiving has turned into the biggest shopping day of the year, and an increasingly important one to retailers - in 2010, 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend and total spending was an estimated $45 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

The number of shoppers on Black Friday increased by more than 17 million in 2010 from the previous year, and stores opened earlier than ever. Some big-name stores opened as early as 3 a.m., with others opening at midnight.

Sure, it means getting up early and braving the crowds, but the advantage of Black Friday shopping is the deals are typically tremendous. It may not make sense for some of the gifts on your wish list, but for others, it may be worth losing sleep over. Here are some things to be on the lookout for if you're going to join the masses in trying score great deals.

Plan ahead: Know what you are interested in purchasing beforehand and plan accordingly. Many newspaper supplements with Black Friday deals are available in the Thanksgiving Day paper, allowing you to research online of where you can find the best price. Good sites for price comparison include Google shopping, Shopzilla and Pricegrabber. Once you find the best price, see if you can find a coupon for the product to lower that price even further. Use a good coupon site that aggregates all of the Black Friday coupons in one place, such as CheapSally.com.

Timing is everything: There are certain days that retailers will offer the best deals. Black Friday, Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), and Green Monday (the Second Monday in December), are probably the three best days to get deals. Plan on purchasing your items on these days for the best price.

Don't waste time - Black Friday has the allure of amazing prices on specific items in store. People camp out for hours outside of Best Buy, Target, Walmart and the likes for their chance at a 50-inch high-definition TV for $400. Sure there are some people who score these amazing deals, but for every person who gets that deal, there are many more who miss out; many times retailers advertise their Black Friday deals when really there are only one or two items at that listed price. So don't waste your time waiting in line unless you are one of the first people in line. Instead shop online where retailers will often have more quantity at the lower price. And you don't have to camp out in the cold.