Asset Bundle workflow?

If I want to load an Asset Bundle from disk, what's the best workflow?

From looking at the docs, it seems I'm supposed to use this plugin to create the bundle: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/45836

I assume I then put it in StreamingAssets and load it with AssetBundle.LoadFromFileAsync(Path.Combine(Application.streamingAssetsPath, "assetBundleName"));

But this leaves me with a couple questions:

1) Where should I put the assets while working? Should it be in some special "assets to bundle" folder? Should I just prepare assets in a completely separate project?

2) It seems that when publishing, Unity will produce the bundle as well. I haven't tested this, but this seems to be the case according to the docs. How do I tell Unity not to do that, rather just completely ignore the assets used in bundles (since I've alread created them with the AssetBundleManager util)- i.e. don't include those assets and don't build the bundle.

Thanks!