diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 427a374..add10b6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -44,6 +44,10 @@ $ make python-env-install
 # run the code
 # beforehand, set the data files in Makefile
 $ make fill-database
+
+# this is a long operation
+# if running on a remote server, use nohup:
+$ nohup $(make fill-database > fill-database.log) &
 ```
 
 If all goes well, we should be able to inspect the database, filled with corpora, on `0.0.0.0:8087`.