diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 73bd85ae4..bc57ffa43 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -44,24 +44,24 @@ out-of-tree plugins.
 
 ## Compilation from Source
 
-Check out the project:
+To compile CoreDNS, we assume you have a working Go setup. See various tutorials if you don’t have that already configured.
+
+First, make sure your `$GOPATH` is correctly set. See [here](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH) for details. Then, check out the project under your `$GOPATH` and run `make` to compile the binary:
 
 ~~~
-% git clone https://github.com/coredns/coredns
-~~~
-
-We vendor most (not all!) packages. This is mostly because vendoring isn't a perfect solution (in
-Go). We don't vendor `mholt/caddy` and `miekg/dns` for instance. Using `make` will pull down these
-dependencies and checks out the correct version as well.
-
-Next just run `make`:
-
-~~~
-% make
+$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/coredns
+$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/coredns/
+$ git clone https://github.com/coredns/coredns
+$ cd coredns
+$ make
 ~~~
 
 This should yield a `coredns` binary.
 
+We vendor most ([not all!](https://github.com/coredns/coredns/issues/1523)) packages. This is mostly because vendoring isn't a perfect solution (in
+Go). We don't vendor `mholt/caddy` and `miekg/dns` for instance. Using `make` will pull down these
+dependencies and checks out the correct version as well.
+
 ## Compilation with Docker
 
 CoreDNS requires Go to compile. However, if you already have docker installed and prefer not to setup