I am a sole developer and I have a web application template that I have created in Visual Studio. I am using GIT for source control, but only on my development machine. Presently I have a master and I create branches for new features, merging them back in to the master as I complete the features.

I am at a point now where I am ready to use the template for deployments, and of course I want to continue adding new features via branching/merging.

My question is: what would be the typical/recommended way for me to create application deployments based on the master? Should I clone the repository into a new directory that is for a particular web application? Or should I also use branching to do project development based on the main project?

The projects would never be merged back into the master. However, it would be nice if I could merge future features into the master and have the ability to incorporate them into previously completed projects if desired.

For more specific details of my environment: I am using TortoiseGIT in Windows 7, Visual Studio 2012, ASP.NET Web Pages. Obviously the main differences between deployments would simply be differing pages, CSS files and jQuery scripts.

I found this post as I was writing this one. In order to do this should I clone the master repository and checkout from it?