I think you played pre-flop fine. In the book I am reading called "Mastering Small Stakes No Limit Holdem" by Jonathan Little, he says that when the action folds or is limped around to you that you should do the following:
If there's no limpers (anyone calling big blind of 1bb): Make it three times the last bet and do this:
Ex: 3x 1(big blind) +.5 (small blind) = 3.5 bb RAISE PREFLOP
If theres one limper:
Ex: 3 x 1(limper) + 1(big blind) + 0.5(small blind) = 4.5 bb RAISE PREFLOP
If out of position, add 0.5bb
If in position subtract 0.5bb because you are okay with getting called in position.
So in your case, there were no limpers, and it folded around to you, so if you look back to the first example, you had no limpers so make it 3.5bb raise, but since out of position make it 4bb (add on another 0.5bb).
An interesting article I read had to do with looking at the hands you beat and the hands you do not beat. Basically if you beat more hands than you lose to, you are ahead. Look into combinatorics for this:
http://www.thepokerbank.com/strategy/mathematics/hand-combinations/
It sucks that his crappy hand called you preflop and won by the river. If you raised more pre- this may have not happened.
Good luck buddy
Hope this helps!