by Hon. Most Rev. Dr. Cesidio Tallini
Professor Emeritus of Fourth and Fifth World Studies
Saint René Descartes University

1. Make sure you are at least 14 years old. The most serious micronational organisations won't even accept your new country claim unless you are at least 14 years old, and some of the most serious may not accept your application even if you are 18, since they first require professional credibility before they can grant other kinds of credentials.
   
2. Give yourself an apt pseudonym, or fictitious alternative to your real name. Regardless of how serious you are, trust me on this one: it is not a good idea to use your legal name, i.e. the name on your birth certificate. Forget about the fact you may be a female, and/or under 18, and therefore a potential target of sexual predators, or that other nefarious characters may wish to take advantage of you; that is not the main reason you should use a pseudonym. At the other end of the spectrum, forget also that nonsense called the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. That, like every other right in the United States, is not really worth the paper on which it is written, because the United States, like a lot of 'Judeo-Christian' countries around the world, is a nation of laws, not a nation of law-abiding citizens. In truth, they all got the cart before the horse, and it is for this reason that you may have a right to freedom of speech, but the moment you begin to exercise it fully is when to begin to lose everything else. You may enjoy the right to be outspoken, but that will have a chilling effect on your employment prospects. Also, you will be an easier target for the demeaning words of unethical bloggers and journalists if you use your real name, and micronational politicians don't have the luxury of the nice salary and other perks traditional politicians have. Of course, you may still wish to use your real name if you have half the creativity of Leonardo da Vinci, since you'll want to ensure your intellectual property is well-protected. However, even if you are extremely creative, you will still regret it if you use your real name in your micronational life.
3. Avoid micronationalists that talk down to you. These people usually have nothing to teach, and even when they do, they usually don't share their wisdom with others. Of course, your own ego may be part of the problem, but the micronational community is naturally full of self-important people, and even if your ego is tiny in comparison to others, they will still accuse you of having a big one just like one donkey accuses the other donkey of having big ears! Another reason you should avoid micronationalists that talk down to you is that it is hypocritical: as the leader of a micronation, regardless of its age or status, you have the same rights as the leader of any other micronation, and acting out in a different way is only an indication you have an ethical, legal, or human rights basket case before you. Finally, you should avoid micronationalists that talk down to you because it is hard to remain optimistic if you hang around them, and you will need to remain as optimistic as possible if you wish to succeed.
   
4. Befriend the micronationalist everyone attacks. This is especially true if he is also attacked by bloggers and journalists. Unless the person is attacked because of some real scam or crime perpetuated, you have every good reason to befriend the micronationalist everyone attacks, even if this seems counterintuitive. Life as a micronationalist is no different than the world of quantum physics: everything is exactly the opposite of what you would expect it to be.
   
5. Make sure you are some kind of a professional. If you are very young, make sure you have the grades to be at least considered a Professional Student. The most Serious Unrecognised Government Organisations or SUGOs won't even accept your new micronational claim unless you are of a certain age, and you are a professional of some kind, and you can't claim to be a professional nation-builder if you've just started! MDs who have just started practicing don't call themselves physicians, but interns.
6. Get yourself at a free webmail address. Without this, nobody will be able to email you.
7. Build a website. You don't need a website to start a micronation, but without one, people will be unable to contact you, and will know nothing or close to nothing about your micronation. Building a website also gives you the opportunity to carefully meditate and organise your ideas about what kind of micronation you wish to build, the kind of citizens you wish to attract, what its name should be, etc., and any serious micronation should be about yourself, but should also reflect a higher purpose than yourself. Of course, to build a website you can start with one of those free websites, but serious potential citizens, the kind that can help you develop a country, will not take you seriously if you don't have a serious, dedicated website. We recommend the services of Servage.net, as they are cheap, and allow for almost unlimited growth in the future.
8. Develop micronational symbols/culture. You should have a flag, and an easy way to get one is to turn an existing nation's flag upside-down so you don't have to create a custom one. Once you have chosen your symbol(s), you can issue stamps, medals, or a currency if you wish. Stamps are not too expensive, and are very useful additions to your letters or postcards. We recommend the services of YourStamps.biz for custom stamps. Some micronations go as far as inventing their own culture and language. Other practical ideas for developing your micronational culture can be found in the article at http://mpr.cyberterra.net/GrowthStrategies.html. Of course, you might want to get official letterheads and/or businesscards at a certain point. We recommend the services of VistaPrint.com, as they are cheap, and allow quite a bit of customisation.
9. Apply for Micronational Professional Registry (MPR) membership. The MPR is the lowest common denominator among Serious Unrecognised Government Organisations (SUGOs), but it will accept your endorsed micronation if you are 21 or older, and a true professional. The MPR is also a real SUGO, with some impressive nations and micronations as members, not a YAMO (Yet Another Micronational Organisation), an organisation to which no Fourth World nation would belong to. Joining the MPR gives a new micronation nominal Sixth World status, and if you work hard at it for 3 or 4 years, you could acquire Fifth World status. If you join, do use your pseudonym or fictitious name, but also inform them of your real name, so your rights can be more effectively protected.
   
10. Find a territory for your micronation. Most micronationalists use their houses, land no one wants, or land on other planets. Some micronations exist on land unclaimed by other countries because of a loophole in a treaty. You'll need a territory at some point, however, because this is one of the Montevideo Convention's requirements for statehood (the other requirements are to have a government, a permanent population, and to be able to host diplomatic relations). If you can't find land, however, then make some! No need to be a multi-millionaire to achieve this goal. You can simply follow Step 11.
11. Apply for United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA) membership. Even if you have some land claimed or unclaimed by others, UMMOA membership will still give you a potential extra embassy. Besides being another SUGO, the UMMOA also has some islands which were legally occupied on 6 May 2008, when it invaded U.S. namespace, and annexed the 11 insular possessions formerly known as the United States Minor Outlying Islands (USMOI). The UMMOA became even more of a legal entity in time. On 22 July 2008, the UMMOA achieved the recognition of all governments and nations members of the International States Parliament for Safety and Peace (ISPSP), so now it is legally incorporated into an alternative UN that was juridically recognised by international law. Nations or micronations will be accepted as supporters of the UMMOA regardless of whether they have other territorial claims, or not, so long they do not claim any island of the UMMOA, or any group of islands. Becoming an UMMOA member can automatically give you some potential territory to meet Montevideo Convention requirements. If you join, do use your pseudonym or fictitious name, but also inform them of your real name, so your rights can be more effectively protected. Please understand that the UMMOA has been growing extremely rapidly, and requires, as a result, greater responsibilities from its members, so joining the UMMOA is much more difficult than joining the Micronational Professional Registry (MPR). Your nation has nominal Fifth World status if you are accepted here.
    
12. Declare your independence. Once your micronation is a United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA) member, a declaration of independence will serve to claim a little piece of UMMOA territory for the purpose of building a small embassy. Even if you don't achieve UMMOA membership, however, your declaration may still be able to claim that your micronation is a Micronational Professional Registry (MPR) member, and this is surely significant. Make sure your declaration is read by as many people as possible, as this will also potentially draw many citizens. For greater impact, you can post your declaration at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FifthWorld, but you first have to join the Fifth World Yahoo! Group. Another good idea is to join the http://5wc.lefora.com forum, or Fifth World Community Forum, another serious place to post your declaration. Here you can also attract some serious diplomatic recognition from other micronations.
13. Build more than your nation. The micronation born yesterday is a Sixth World nation. When a Sixth World nation begins to naturally grow offshoots like agencies, institutions, organisations, or companies, the nation has begun to develop Fifth World nation characteristics, which give it a certain level of maturity. Give people an extra reason to join you by providing great new products and services, and I don't mean just products and services that are like national adverts.
    
14. Acquire citizens and learn more. Without additional citizens besides yourself, your micronation will be little more than a pipe dream. Not only you need capable citzens to fill-in government posts, but you also need citizens to attract useful skills and support. You must decide what is the minimum you expect of your citizens. They may all have to fill-in an application, but do they have to pass a test? Do they have to abide by certain laws? Make the part about laws short and sweet. You don't wish to attract only lawyers and law students! You also need to establish what citizens will have to identify themselves as citizens. A simple ID card? A naturalisation certificate? A t-shirt? You decide! It's your country, after all! Make sure you also keep on learning, and you study existing and well-established micronations. What has led to their success? What can you learn from them? A great and inspiring book to read is this one, well worth the $22 cover: The Fifth World: Micronationalism on Steroids.
    

• Several Authors. (2008). How to Start Your Own Country. WikiHow. Retrieved 15 December 2008 from http://www.wikihow.com/Start-Your-Own-Country.
• Keating, Joshua. (2008, February). How to Start Your Own Country in Four Easy Steps. Foreign Policy. Retrieved 15 December 2008 from http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4217.
• Tallini, Cesidio. (2008, December). Growth Strategies for Fifth and Sixth World Nations. Retrieved 15 December 2008 from http://mpr.cyberterra.net/GrowthStrategies.html.