write down every cont bet you make for a sequence of about 1000 hands at least. see how much you lose and how much you win from them.

You will get check raised. That's just a fact of life. Every session I play I'll get my cont bets raised at least 10 times. There are some flops that are especially bad and sometimes you want to just take the free card. There are times when you just get a feel that he's making a play on you and you can double his raise. Helps if you got some outs, which you normally do if you're looking at AK or something.

At micro stakes you're pretty much reduced to chasing for implied odds and getting paid off when you hit. But at 50NL and above, you can be quite aggressive with your draws. Heck, you should be aggressive with 2nd pair, good draws, excellent draws, top pair, sets (get the picture?) Out of position I probably check raise the pre-flop-raiser to pick off a lot of cont bets... probably continue on the turn if missed about 45% of the time. But I often win right there. In position you can raise the cont bet and get the free card as well.

When you play at higher levels you really have to do something to counter the semi bluff (8 or 9 outs for a good made hand draw or even a 2nd pair for 5 outs can and will raise you). Which gets tricky because the default line for a set is for many people check-raise or raise behind if in position (call in position sometimes to imitate a flush chase if you're feeling daring and feel the other guy can't slow down). You'll find that your sets start getting paid off lots when you play them aggressively on suited/connected boards (as you should) because you play aggressively with your draws. That's the real value of suited connectors at higher levels - not to win overwhelming amounts of money with them (though you certainly can) but to keep your opponents off balance.