When working with non-model organisms, few if any species-specific markers are available for phylogenetic, phylogeographic and population studies. Therefore, researchers often try to adapt markers developed in distantly related taxa, resulting in poor amplification and ascertainment bias in their target taxa. Markers can be developed de novo and anonymous nuclear loci (ANL) are proving to be a boon for researchers seeking large numbers of fast-evolving, independent loci. However, the development of ANL can be laboratory intensive and expensive. A workflow is described to identify suitable low-copy anonymous loci from high-throughput shotgun sequences, dramatically reducing the cost and time required to develop these markers and produce robust multilocus datasets.