I don't even roll out changes really, I edit the live production code, one small change at a time. I always felt this was kind of dumb, and I know it brings my site down for a few seconds to a minute here and there (about 1k visitors are on the site at any given time). But i've always felt this allows to get 5x more work done than I would within structured rollout system with version control, etc.. and has given me a great sense of instant satisfaction that motivates me to keep working.
I'd seriously recommend learning git (or svn). After a few days learning curve it won't slow you down in the slightest, and it will have a huge effect on the quality of your codebase since you won't need to keep old code around and you'll always be able to figure out what you changed, why and when.
