diff --git a/doc/MAKE_AN_IMAGE.md b/doc/MAKE_AN_IMAGE.md
index 20bda27..16aece4 100644
--- a/doc/MAKE_AN_IMAGE.md
+++ b/doc/MAKE_AN_IMAGE.md
@@ -4,16 +4,24 @@ awsbox creates an instance of your application by first creating a server
 from an awsbox machine image.  This image is pre-configured with nginx, node.js,
 git publishing, and more.
 
-The base image is creating using [cdist][], and you can yourself build a custom
+The base image is created using [cdist][], and you can yourself build a custom
 image to make whatever changes you desire.  Here's the steps:
 
 [cdist]: http://www.nico.schottelius.org/software/cdist/
 
+You could run all of these instructions locally but a good idea is to boot up an
+extra EC2 instance and run it from there - essentially this will be quicker than
+from your local machine.
+
 ### 1. Create a new VM
 
-First create a new VM using the amazon console.  The only requirement is that the
-image is accessible by root via ssh without a password.  To make this possible
-on an amazon AMI you need to make some changes:
+First create a new VM using the Amazon Console by using the default stock Amazon
+Linux AMI 2014.03.2 (or later) 64 bit and make sure it is the PV
+(Para-Virtualisation) version, not the HVM (Hardware-assited Virtual Machine)
+version. This is usually at top of the AMI list of standard AMIs.
+
+The only requirement is that the image is accessible by root via ssh without a
+password.  To make this possible on an amazon AMI you need to make some changes:
 
 1. uncomment `PermitRootLogin yes` in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
 2. uncomment `StrictModes yes` in /etc/ssh/sshd_config (which is the default, but will be set to `no` in step 3)
@@ -22,7 +30,7 @@ on an amazon AMI you need to make some changes:
    tells you to log in as the ec2-user
 
 Verify you can ssh in as root, and you're done.  Here's a little script that you
-can paste in as ec2-user to accomplish the above:
+can paste in as `ec2-user` to accomplish the above:
 
     sudo sed -i s/^#PermitRoot/PermitRoot/ /etc/ssh/sshd_config
     sudo sed -i s/^#StrictModes/StrictModes/ /etc/ssh/sshd_config
@@ -48,6 +56,15 @@ you can put this wherever you want, simple is good, try this:
 
     curl https://codeload.github.com/telmich/cdist/tar.gz/3.0.7 | tar xz
 
+Or:
+
+    git clone git://git.schottelius.org/cdist
+    cd cdist
+    export PATH=$PATH:$(pwd -P)/bin
+    cd ..
+
+Note: cdist version 3.1.5 is also known to work.
+
 ### PRO TIP: make ssh faster
 
 Our friends who created cdist [suggest a way][] to make sequential ssh sessions much faster:
@@ -67,14 +84,36 @@ Using cdist, you can now provision the server you created in #1 above. From the
 
     /path/to/cdist-3.0.7/bin/cdist config -v -c .cdist <server public ip>
 
+Once this has finished, you should run the pristinify script on the instance
+to make sure various services are stopped, some files are deleted and logs
+removed. As the `ec2-user`:
+
+    ~/pristinify.sh
+
 ### 4. Create a new base image and update the AMI list
 
+Firstly, export which region your instance is in:
+
+    REGION=es-west-2
     ./awsbox.js createami <instance id>
 
 This is going to take a while...  First this will create an image.  Next it will
 copy that AMI into all availability zones, and finally it will write out the
 region specific AMI IDs to the JSON file `defaultImages.json`.
 
+e.g.
+
+    $ ./awsbox.js createami i-deadbeef
+    ...etc...
+    AMIs created: { 'us-west-2': 'ami-391e6209',
+      'us-west-1': 'ami-192a2c5c',
+      'ap-northeast-1': 'ami-c52d66c4',
+      'us-east-1': 'ami-d4f20bbc',
+      'eu-west-1': 'ami-aff931d8',
+      'ap-southeast-2': 'ami-9d791da7',
+      'sa-east-1': 'ami-259c3338',
+      'ap-southeast-1': 'ami-be530cec' }
+
 A successful result will be a local modification to defaultImages.
 
 ### Now test!