With Halloween coming only once per year, one might think it's not a great money-making opportunity. Nothing could be further from the truth, though, with Halloween raking in sales well over six billion dollars every year. Taking advantage of the massive market for Halloween-related items, it's easy enough to make money on Halloween--both on Halloween items and on Halloween night. This guide will discuss some interesting and perhaps clever ways to make money on Halloween.

Halloween costumes are a huge industry during the season. If you'd like to make some money on Halloween and have it involve costumes, here are some ideas to try:

1. Buy Halloween costumes off-season, after Halloween is over, from stores who usually sell their remaining stock for pennies on the dollar. Many seasonal stores will get rid of their stock at 50-75% off, and some grocery stores and department stores will offer even bigger discounts. You can then turn around and sell the Halloween costumes the next year at full price.
   1. Be certain to pick costumes that are not 'dated', such as animals, ghosts, goblins, vampires. Dated costumes usually involve popular characters from movies that were released that year, etc. These items won't sell as well the following year.
   2. Buy costumes that are complete kits or make them complete kits by buying Halloween makeup and accessories and putting the entire kit together for a flat rate. These might sell well on eBay or other online auction sites or your own online store.
2. Hand make costumes that are difficult to find or buy in the stores or online. These hand-crafted costumes will be more unique and can sell for nice amounts to cover your cost and labor.
3. Sell used costumes from the previous year. You can receive donations from people who are willing to part with their last year's costume, then wash them, iron them, fix any problems, and sell them online for the next year.
4. Offer a costume repair service, if you know how to hem, sew or alter things for people, and charge for the service.

This video shows some unique ideas for making Halloween costumes for toddlers. Baby and toddler products are a high-paying and lucrative industry so learning to make quality toddler costumes and then selling them online or in a small shop or selling them on consignment to local shops is a great option for making money on Halloween.

Party planning itself is a big industry, so combining party planning and Halloween is sure to be a hit. You can start with making baked goods in the shape of Halloween symbols, like a pumpkin shaped cake, pumpkin shaped cookies, ghost shaped cookies, and other traditional Halloween baked fare.

You can also go all out and do the gross Halloween foods, like Jello mold brains, worms in mud (gummy worms in Oreo cookie crumbs) and eyeball salad (peeled grapes), or other scary and creative gory food items.

These along with the decorations for the party, including table cloths, napkins, themed paper plates and other paper goods, and scary costume-clad servers can make for a great income over the Halloween season, for adult and children parties. If party planning for an adult party, you can also make scary-named mixed drinks too, including the Bloody Mary!

People like to get scared on Halloween, so running your own haunted house that charges admission can help make good money on Halloween. Admission prices for the best haunted houses can be more than $10-15USD, while smaller houses can charge around $5-7USD.

You'll want staff members to volunteer or get paid to walk people through the haunted house, take money, pass out tickets for admission, and let people through the entrance doors. You'll also need to find a location suitable for decorating, and ensure the local business zoning district will allow this type of business for the Halloween season.

Tricks or treats, as the saying goes, are all part of Halloween. If you want to avoid being tricked, you'd better have a treat at your door. With the higher incidence of problems with candy and parent's fears, perhaps hand-made treats for kids would be more appropriate. Or you can purchase small toys and finger games in bulk and then sell them to people in packages to pass out for the Trick or Treaters who come to the door.

There are several video upload sites where users can get paid small fees every time someone views one of their videos. Metacafe and Revver are two of those sites. You can do how-to videos for things like How to Carve a Scary Jack-O-Lantern to costume creation, Halloween costume ideas, or even take video of trick or treaters being scared and post the reactions on the internet. People will laugh and relate and you'll make money on Halloween.

If you are talented and creative, you can set up a kiosk or a tent or space in a high-traffic area of a mall or parking lot (get the owner's permission) and do face painting for a last-minute Halloween costume idea for those who procrastinated or for children who want their faces painted to match their costume. You can purchase all the face paints and brushes and supplies the year before when they are marked down inexpensively, and then charge anywhere from $1-15 to use face paint.

For some face-painting tips, check out the video below. If you practice on yourself and family and friends first, you can get quite good, fast.