There are many things that act as significant factors during the process of OverClocking. I would say that the biggest thing newbies overlook is the fact that OverClocking does not involve only your CPU. To get the best results it is critical that all your parts are in great condition. To give an idea, your PSU could cause an OverClock to go faulty if it can't power everything up. Although rare, very possible. I would have to say that for Speed OverClocking (aka CPU), the 3 most important parts are the motherboard, the RAM, and, of course, the CPU. The CPU and the RAM work together at all times (communicating through the motherboard). You won't get a true CPU OverClock if your RAM can't keep up. So it is ideal for your RAM to be OverClocked with your CPU. To minimize the potential of a RAM bottleneck, it is usually best to buy RAM that runs faster than your CPU so when you OverClock you won't have to worry about OverClocking your RAM.
I'm in a bit of a hurry so I can't go into full details, but that should be a good overview.
If you can post your specs I can give you the best idea of where to start.