Hi,
I'm more an event photographer than a portrait shooter, so I tend to shoot more images in a day. It's not unusual for me to have 750-3000 shots to go through after one or two day events.
I had to find a fast and efficient workflow, because I also insist on working with RAW files most of the time. Low light, backlit situations and other issues are common for what I'm shooting, and are better dealt with in RAW than JPEGs. Plus I like the ability to tweak things a little, if needed. I'm shooting fast and can't always fine tune each image before taking it.
Photoshop, Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera RAW to the rescue. CS2 works for me right now, but I'll need to upgrade to CS3 when I trade up to some of the current crop of 14 bit cameras.
Basically, I edit in Bridge and ACR.
After getting everything off my memory cards, first I rename everything, burn a backup, and run an action that puts my copyright info into the EXIF of every image.
Then I quickly review rank the RAW images by quality and trash the really bad "accidents".
Next I open batches of the files that made it through the first cut, 30 to 50 images at a time, in ACR and spend a little time with each image.
At this point I'm still culling out poor images or close duplicates, leveling horizons, doing crops as needed, tweaking exposure and color balance, checking focus, etc. This involves only a few seconds per image and I find I can do 200 to 300 images per hour.
I don't fully convert the RAW files yet, just click "Done" so that my changes, tweaks and rankings are kept in the sidecar files.
Once I've completed that process, from Bridge I use "Tools/Photoshop/Image Processor" to do batch RAW conversions into JPEGs. This can be left to run, and might take hours if there are a lot of images in one large batch, or might be broken down into smaller selections and a number of batches if I'm organizing the galleries in some way.
My keeper rate runs 50% to 60%, but I'm careful to avoid "spray and pray" 5 or 6 frame per second shooting most of the time, even at sports events.
I don't do anything with the converted JPEGs at this point, other than use them to generate thumbnails for my online galleries. If I were burning a DVD with the images, I'd just make the JPEGs fairly small and relatively low resolution.
I don't put watermarks on the thumbnails or the JPEGs. I simply think they get in the way of customers viewing the images and making their choices. Watermarks also sort of scream "I don't trust you" to my clients, which is not a message I really want to broadcast.
All my DVDs or CDs are imprinted with a small type copyright notice. And I usually include a txt file on the DVD/CD explaining copyright and referring to online sources of additional info, like the federal copyright office.
Images are usually uploaded online, into viewing galleries. I don't watermark these either. The thumbnails are small and low resolution, and are automatically produced by a software provided by the company that hosts my galleries and fulfills print orders for me (Printroom.com).
There is an option online of enabling a copyright warning before anyone can enter a gallery. I've just been turning this off lately. The fewer clicks people need to make to get into a gallery and view the thumbnails, the better, as far as I'm concerned. The thumbnails are so small and such low resolution I'm really not worried.
I'll then burn a DVD or CD with the final, edited and organized JPEGs, as another backup.
If the client needs one, I can burn a thumbnail DVD for them to use.
Next, I'll often use Adobe Bridge "Tools/Photoshop/Contact Sheet II" to make printed thumbnail catalogs, organized in the same manner as the online galleries, for my own reference and for selling at future events.
I also often keep documents such as contracts, model/property releases, event programs, correspondence, etc. in this printed catalog. I am considering getting an inexpensive flatbed scanner to digitize more of these documents and keep them on the backup DVDs as well.
My file naming convention includes the event date. That carries over into the names of my folders, galleries, etc. It also is used on my CD/DVD, so I will know when they are 5 or 6 years old and need to be re-burned for archiving purposes.
I recommend "The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers" and "Photoshop CS2(3) RAW" as good resources that you might find helpful. I don't follow all the authors' suggestions, such as converting everything to DNG files or using some other softwares, but they give you a good framework for your workflow.
You also don't need to stick with Photoshop, or can us it in conjunction with other softwares. If you wish, Aperture, Lightroom, P1C1 and some other editing, sorting and image handling softwares can be used. I've just been using Photoshop since version 4.0, so am pretty accustomed to it.
I've used the same process on a smaller scale with weddings and in many other situations. Online, I password protect wedding albums, but not albums or galleries from events that were open to the public.
A lot of the batch processing I've mentioned can be done in the background while I work on other things, or while I'm off getting dinner or doing something else.
I've had a couple thumbnail images stolen online, but haven't really worried about it all that much. I was just a little surprised in one case it that was a rock and roll band that used several of my images on their website, taken from my online galleries of thumbnails. I'd expect musicians to be a little more knowledgeable about and sensitive to issues of intellectual property, and respectful of my copyright. If they'd asked permission to use the images, I'm sure I'd have given it in exchange for credit and a link. (Oh well, they are a *cover* band, after all 
)
Oh, and when an order for prints or digital files come through, I go back to the full size JPEG files that's still on my computer and do final tweaking and editing before uploading it to my printing service. If necessary, I can also go back to the original RAW file to recrop it, do double processing or whatever else might be needed. So, only after the image is ordered do I spend the time and effort to finalize it.
All my final prints or digital images have a digital "signature" on them, which is a form of watermark that I use. It is in a font that's quite similar to the signature I use when I physically sign a print. It's kept unobtrusive and I've stopped using the copyright symbol in it (c), since that's technically unnecessary and doesn't strengthen the case against theft of the image in any way.
My print fulfillment service puts a copyright imprint on the back of all prints they send out.
You really should burn your images to a DVD and register all your images with the copyright office within 90 days of uploading them (i.e., within 90 days the date of first "publication"), if you want to get the fullest protection and right to collect the fullest damages. There's a cost per DVD, but a huge number of images can be put onto a standard DVD. Plus, be aware there's up to an additional $30,000 award, per instance, if someone willfully removes your watermarks or identifying signatures from your images.
I'm sure you'll get all sorts of opinions on the issues of watermarks and protecting your images.
I'm watching the Orphan Works bill to see what that's going to do and trying to figure out how it's going to effect me.
