Beginners and less-skilled players aren't usually aware of the art of extracting value out of your opponents. A better player can spot a bad player from 10 miles away when he sees poor value in his opponent's actions. Extracting value usually means making those few extra bets out of our opponent. Bets, that all-in-all make up for a significant part of a winning player's profits. Knowing how to extract value is a clear sign of a good/great player, whereas not knowing how is usually a clear sign of a bad player (not when it's player's successful strategy to "not extract value at the moment", this is rare though).
One of the main subjects I concentrate on when studying my plays after a session, is figuring out how much value I missed or gained. Successful value betting, like almost everything in poker, requires a certain amount of information about your opponent. You'll need to know what kind of hands he folds, calls and raises with. How many times he check-raises a better hand? How many times he raises with a worse hand? This all should be included in your decision making process (see expected value).
Even though I just linked you to the math article about value, it's basically figuring out (for example) whether your bet will be profitable more often that not. That simple. If betting makes you more money, in other words has more value to you, do it.
A common misunderstanding among new/beginner poker players is how poker players make their money. Waiting for one big pot is not the way to go, since you'll rarely be in a "dream situation", where you can just go all-in with the absolute nuts and your opponent calls. Most of the time, you're just looking for weak players who you can make a great deal of value out of. That's why weak players are generally best ones to play against - so much value.
Another misunderstanding, common again, is how you'll have to play weak poker in order to win a big pot versus your opponent. My experiences tell otherwise. Usually, strong, aggressive poker is what forces your opponent into making mistakes. By strong poker, I mean value betting, too. Look at it from your opponent's perspective; what could be more frustrating than someone making even more money against me by value betting? If you want to find a way to get your opponent on tilt, this way extracting even more value in future, strong play is generally your answer.
No Limit Texas Hold'em is a game of poker, where you've got more flexibility to extract value. In Limit Hold'em, for example, you can only bet a certain amount of money. And it's only that amount. No Limit Texas Hold'em offers you a wide variety of options in a sense, since you can bet half the pot, 2/3 of the pot, 3/4 of the pot, full pot or basically whatever amount you feel like betting. It offers more chances for inexperienced players to lose value, but also a great deal of options for experienced players to extract value.
If you have never heard of "extracting value" or aren't familiar with the concept, I hope you'll read this article carefully and then proceed to following articles about the subject:
Missing out on Value
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