You really don't have to get too carried away with this as long as you can identify a spot on hard ground you can always set up on. I've marked my backyard tiles for the 3 tripod legs (with nikko pen) , then put another pen mark across the base of the tripod once I had the azimuth adjustment correct for my site.
For visual AND imaging I have no trouble at all lining up tile marks and checking azimuth is ok (in case I've been offsite to a dark sky site). You'll probably need to mark your tripod legs with a black line too showing where they need to be to get the mount level.
The key to finding the correct spot is drift aligning though. There is no better way in the end. The webcam method with K3CCD tools is pretty damned good if you have a webcam. Failing that, its worth spending the time with a high power eyepiece to get it right once. Remeber you have to get the altitude of your mount set right too, and drift alignment will sort this out too.
Its nice to have a compass, electronic level, etc for when you set up at an new "unknown" site, but I never use mine at all now at home......
(one of the reasons I'm always mumbling and fumbling in the dark at a dark sky site trying to remember how to get polar aligned!
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