Tired of trying to write essay upon essay for scholarships and grants? Maybe applying for student loans turns your stomach? Or do your parents tell you “get a job” when you ask them how to pay for college? If this sounds like you, don’t worry. Today there are many alternative ways to pay for college apart from loans, scholarships and finding a job. Here are a few ideas that can get you started on the path to funding your college education.

Start your own blog or website. Blogging is not only for housewifes and techies. This blog actually came from the idea of starting a website to help me pay my loans. Start writing about your experiences. Ask businesses if they would like to sponsor your website. Luke Livingston had this idea too. His site, SponsorMyLoans.com every month features a sponsor’s ad, which in turn pays his student loan payment for the month.

Another site, Milliondollarhomepage.com, was started by Alex Tew. The idea:

to try and make $1 million by selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each. Hence, “The Million Dollar Homepage.” The main motivation for doing this is to pay for my degree studies, because I don’t like the idea of graduating with a huge student debt.

The best thing to do here is to have a really good idea. If you have an idea, try it. A cheap and easy way to start your own blog without spending a lot of time with the setup is Wordpress. Read more…

Charity For Debt is a startup nonprofit group (with a very nice logo) dedicated to helping students and alumni with debt pay off their student loans by providing paid volunteer opportunities by working with local charity organizations. The nonprofit was launched just this year but already has had many sign ups from potential volunteers. So if you’ve ever thought about giving back to your community, this is the perfect time. Not only will you be giving back but you will also be paying off your debt.

Charity For Debt depends on 3 groups to work: the student and alumni volunteers who want to pay off their debt, donors who are looking for innovative ways to donate to the local community and see the direct results of their dollars, and nonprofit or charity groups that need volunteers to keep their organizations running. Read more…