@Grant: Sorry, I'll try to better compress my pictures next time. How do I do that? Is there a website/program I could use? I simply uploaded the pics to one of the sites recommended in the FAQ and then used their links.

@ozranger: Good question. It all depends on how many sponsors we can find until end of January and how big the budget will be. As I said above I worked for an NGO for two years and wrote my bachelor thesis about biases in private donor behavior and their effect on NGO efficiency. So my focus clearly is finding suitable, reliable and efficient NGOs. To me proper evaluation is really important to see if what their doing actually works and how it could be improved. Pratham in India for example is famous for their evaluation efforts and their cooperation with scientific organizations like JPAL. Also we need to pool our money to get more 'bang for the buck'. So I focused on the poorest five countries (Cambodia, Laos, India, Nepal and Pakistan) I'm crossing and preselected one NGO each. Once we know our budget we'll decide whether we'll support 2, 3 or even all 5. It will most likely work like this:

1) Decision how many NGOs will be supported
2) All NGOs will be introduced in a short presentation/video or sth like that so that everyone understands why the respective NGO is important and what they're doing.
3) Via FB people can decide which NGOs are supported. E.g. in step 1) we decide to support three NGOs. Then we'd introduce all five and have a poll on FB; the top three get support.
4) I'll personally drive to the NGO's headquater to hand over the money. Also I'll present their work, goals and ambitions in detail, interview them, maybe even help them for a day or two and post a video on FB. After this we keep their website linked to the FB page to increase awareness and to raise some more funds.

It's not 100% worked out so there might be small changes to the plan but most likely it will look very similar to the above 4 steps.

The site you're using - photobucket - should offer options of different sizes, just pick something smaller to link to rather than the original. Sorry I don't use any photo sharing sites, so am no expert.

There's also loads of photo editing software, depends on whether you're Mac or PC.

Any tips from anyone else out there?

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Now that is indeed a fantastic trip you have in front of you. Will be great to follow your journey. Best of luck.

//Jan

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"A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open". ― Frank Zappa

Birka Adventure Riders

Confident Music Studio

Hi you can try IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

Its free for not comercial use and easy too, don´t really know if this is "a non comercial use in their eys" but...

Good luck with your trip!

Cheers Sascha and Kerstin

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Round the world by bike. www.RTWbyBIKE.com

Thanks guys! I'll do better next time

Fantastic news Steven , I am sure you will do great during your trip and you did already the most difficult part of it ( finding sponsors ) no worry for the rest, riding long distance is easy ( even if many seems to make it look tough) just don't try to speed in India as thier way of driving is very "suprising" .Pakistan and Iran are superb too , the road you picked is a good one and you will most likely stay on pavement so it will be a breeze , bring some basic tools ( include front and rear sproket but no chain, a set a break pads)and a repair kit for the tires and you will be set to go . I did over 40000 miles with my DL650 ABS and no problem at all in central and south america. Enjoy your time on the road and have fun .