How far should you take a called bluff/steal attempt?

I apologize for not having the HH, but I'm at work at the moment.

Setting: Ring NL .25/.50 game. The table is limp-happy with 4-6 limpers almost every hand, but with most folding to a 3-4xBB raise. I'm SB w/ 23o and everyone limps to me. I figure I'll take a shot, and raise it 7xBB. I get one caller in MP (maybe UTG+1). Flop comes JJ9 rainbow. I'm thinking, well, he may have hit something, so I check. To my surprise, he checks behind. Turn card was a 6, and in thinking about his previous check, I bet out $3.00, which is about a 1/3 pot-sized bet. He calls. River is another rag, 4 or 5, iirc. I figure he's not letting go of the hand and I check the river, so does he. He turns over AK, and I turn over my 23 and get ridiculed to no end. I laughed along w/ them, but the reality of it is if I carry the bluff onto the flop and turn, I almost certainly take this down.

Known / obvious criticisms of how I played this:
1.) I tried to steal out of position, which I think is the worst thing out of everything else wrong that I did. But, I sensed weakness with all the limpers, and if I get reraised, I would have let it go.
2.) I didn't follow through with the bluff on the flop, mainly because I had to act first, which takes us back to #1.
3.) I didn't bet enough on the turn to cause him to give up his hand. If I make a 3/4 to full pot-sized bet, maybe he lets it go.

I think those were the most obvious problems, but I welcome any other criticisms/suggestions.

After showing this bluff, it affected my table image positively for me, because when I did get a decent hand after this, I had more callers.

My question is, though, playing the hand as I did, without betting out on the flop and betting weak on the turn, should I follow through with a big bet on the river or did I make the right move to cut my losses and move on to the next hand?

If the river was a 5 (and not a 4), a healthy sized raise could possibly represent a made straight - 9 high, which you first bet weakly on when it was only an OESD. I think you'd have more luck betting out on the flop here than checking and bluffing on turn/river. When you decided to try to steal, follow through on the flop unless you feel it's VERY likely that your opponent hit (seeing aces or kings on the flop would fall into this category).

Also, I'm not sure about the 7xBB preflop raise. Unless you're regularly raising by this amount, that screams steal attempt to me. In ring games, you may well have more luck if you do a standard raise followed by a flop bet rather than a huge pf raise.

- Jeffrey

i think a 4-5x preflop raise is a little bit more in order. I'd bet half the pot on the flop. If he just calls it, he's probably scared. If he reraises, unless you know him to be like that to try to steal, fold. but, if he calls (as he would've done in this case), go ahead and rip out a 3/4 pot bet on the turn as long as its not a scare card. 1/2 the pot on the flop is not too big, 3/4 the pot on the turn is much bigger. he's not tied to the pot, i bet he would've let it go right there.

I did basically this to a calling station earlier, a few times. in a .20/.40 room, he would basically call any 1.60 bet. so i was in late position, unraised to me i bet 1.60. he and one other call, flop came whatever, i bet 2.40, he calls other folds, by now pot is like 8 bucks and worth having, turn comes whatever, i bet 6 he folds.