####package.json
if you're getting deprecation warnings, check the date of the blog post you're copying code from. chances are you're referencing old module versions.
###when deploying code
if you find you're getting oddness when deploying code to your awesome paas (nodejitsu, heroku, etc). one of your modules is probably reacting to NODE_ENV specifically when it's absent or set to production.
the easiest way to reproduce the oddness is to run the code locally this way:
NODE_ENV=production node.js path/to/your/app.js
you'll often find there some agressive caching enabled in express.
###npm install -save module
a quick way to add dependencies to your module
###.npmignore
use this to add empty directories, you'll still need to have an exclusion mask in .gitignore