Wow ...so many questions ...I'm not sure where to begin answering all of these :) HN is throttling me, so please come find me on #zersiax on freenode to discuss this if you have more questions :) I hope this goes through ...
As a web developper, I would LOVE if you could compile a list of things I should do to make your life easier. I have read the best practices. However, I would love to have a list that comes from you. What are some websites that are doing it well?
Please come find me on IRC or twitter for this :) any list I could draw up will leave you with a lot of questions, and asking those would just get frustrating in a medium like this. If you rather use another form of communication, please let me know and I'll see what I can do