Editor’s Note: This tutorial was written and demonstrated for Snow Leopard, teaching you how to install Lion.

With Lion’s release, there are some who wish to have a more tangible version of Apple’s new operating system. Prior to Lion, the company offered bottable CDs with the operating system that could be used to install Lion, but today we’re going to be teaching you how to create a bootable USB instead (more high tech, we think.) Thanks to RedmondPie for the tutorial. You will need a 4GB USB (at minimum) and access to the Mac App Store, where you can buy Lion.

Step 1: Download OS X Lion from the Mac App Store.

Step 2: Once downloaded, go to the Applications folder and find the copy of Lion you just downloaded.

Step 3: Right click on the downloaded file and select “Show Package Contents”.

Step 4: Go to “Contents” and jump inside the “SharedSupport” folder and you’ll find a file titled “InstallESD.dmg”. Copy this over to the desktop.

Step 5: Plug in a USB flash drive to your Mac having at least 4GB memory. We highly suggest going ahead with an 8GB one just to be on the safe side.

Step 5: Now open up “Disk Utility” and drag InstallESD.dmg from the desktop to the left-hand sidebar. Select the attached USB from left side and click on “Partition” tab.

Step 6: Select “1 Partition” from the Volume Scheme dropdown menu. Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the left.

Step 7: Now click on “Option” at the bottom. Select “GUID Partition Table” and press OK. Now click on Apply at the bottom right to start formatting.. (NOTE: This is will erase all data on your USB flash drive)

Step 8: Once the drive has been formatted, click on “Restore” (it’s right next to where you clicked on “Partition in Step 5).

Step 9: Choose USB drive you plugged-in in Step 5 as “Destination” with the InstallESD.dmg file as “Source”.

Step 10: Click Restore and type in your password. This will create the intended Lion bootable USB flash drive

Step 11: Reboot your Mac with the USB drive plugged in. Hold the “Option” key on your keyboard when you hear the iconic OS X startup chime. You can now boot into your Flash drive from there.

Step 12: Follow the on-screen instructions to install OS X Lion.

That’s it! Starting August 2011, Apple will be selling $69 USBs containing Lion, but why not just follow this simple do-it-yourself guide and save yourself some money?