30wpm after a week is very good speed indeed. The rate of improvement follows a log curve, so just type for fun and your speed will steadily increase.

For faster improvement, you can try to use Colemak full time, so that there would be no confusion between two layouts from now on.

For accuracy improvement, you can always try Typeracer accuracy universe at
http://play.typeracer.com/?universe=accuracy

For typing stories I try Amphetype (programmed by tristesse member of this forum) and it has an option that automatically detect your weaker words from your typing and let you practise them.

The program gives you a lot of statistics that help you to improve from your mistakes, as well as a lot of options (the required accuracy to pass a text or a review, ability to type a whole novel and read them through typing is excellent).

Amphetype is definitely a tailor made software to learn touch typing efficiently. It does not have much graphics and fun stuff, but I highly recommend it to any typist that wants to improve their typing skills.

Here the Amphetype project homepage:
https://code.google.com/p/amphetype/

Download Amphetype (Windows, OSX):
https://code.google.com/p/amphetype/downloads/list

Backstory of the author tristesse
=====================

About 4 months ago I attempted the difficult switch from Qwerty to what is commonly referred to as the Dvorak layout. I didn't know touch typing, so I had to learn that at the same time. It was hell on Earth. It probably took me a full week just to be able to snail away at 20 WPM and after a full month I was still only at 40 WPM. Dvorak is impossibly hard to learn.

That's when I discovered Colemak, a layout that promised to be even more efficient that the Dvorak and much easier to learn. I was intrigued and found that it fixed most of the issues I had with Dvorak, which only added to my frustration over not having discovered it sooner after having put so much effort into learning Dvorak. But finally I made the decision to switch again. Since this time I decided I was going to do it right I even went ahead and made my own keyboard layout based on a mix between the Colemak and the Norwegian Qwerty, but moving a lot of the common punctuation to the home and upper rows using the AltGr key.

After a week I was already as fast as my best speeds with Dvorak, and after a month I was at a more comfortable 65 WPM. Today I am at around 75-80 WPM, which is almost as fast as I once was on the Qwerty (80-85 WPM).

Now, in my long quest for learning a new layout, I have grown fond of programs and sites that help you measure and improve your typing. However, there is a lot of things lacking from most that I'd like to see. The two main things are:

* Texts that make sense: I am a big fan of Typeracer where you type actual quotes from popular culture (books, movies, songs). This gives you some shallow entertainment as opposed to just typing nonsense language-agnostic syllables which I find very dull and unrewarding. I also played some with TyperA which gives you random sentences, but they are cut off at awkward points (can't separate "." in abbreviations from proper end-of-sentence punctuation) and sometimes they're part of a joke that you don't get to see the follow-up to -- very annoying! A better version in this respect is Hi Games' Typing Test which at least give you random fragments instead of just half-sentences.

* Automatic lessons based on problem words (not just keys): TypingMaster Pro Satellite is an ingenious (albeit commercial and Windows-only) program which monitors everything you type and tells you which words and keys you have problems with (probably inferred from speed and backspace usage). So far I haven't found any alternative to it, nor even a free program which tells you what words you have problems with.

So basically when I wrote the first version of Amphetype on a long and boring ride on the night train these two items is what I had in mind: the ability to type texts from favorite novels, moves, web sites, whatever, and detailed statistics about problematic words and keys which can be used to generate new lessons. And that's what I've done.

From feedback from friends I've also added the ability to type whole books fragment by fragment so you can read them while practicing typing.

Let's say you wanted to learn how to play the piano, or build bigger muscles. How fast would you expect to improve?

That depends on a lot of things. We're all different.

Seems like you're a tad impatient with yourself? Muscle memory takes a while to settle. Some practice every day is very useful, but if you push it too hard you'll gain less and less compared to the effort. I think the best way is to challenge yourself in a fun way. Typing book chapters that you actually want to read is my favourite, and after a few months of that I realized that my typing had gotten better at the same time.

Next time you can try Viagra before practising.

Apart from increasing sexual prowess, the main fuction of Viagra is to increase awareness and muscle collaboration, which is beneficial to typing of course.

No, it's not like the muscles needing rest to grow back. It's like the muscles growing when stimulated and nourished.

Muscle memory, like many other forms of training, has two phases: The workout and the processing phase. You stimulate your typing skills by practice, but after that the brain needs to "sort it out" while you're resting (sleeping). Overtraining between each resting phase has little further effect because your learning capacity becomes saturated.

Bit sure of yourself!  That's quite a statement. (Typical arrogant Colemak programmer) ;)

Minor update:

Not much chance to practice these last few days, but did do some sparse coding at work - and that was kind of slow...
It may also be the PT->US layout changing chars such as  {}-</>;

It still feels like my brain is re-adjusting, however:
I finally scored 50 WPM on hi-games, and the average has gone up as well (45-ish, I would say).

I am really happy with the progress so far, and as I mentioned before almost happy with the results.
As soon as some problems (such as 'rs', 'you' ) are less common, the speed will probably continue to evolve slowly but naturally, as I get more and more used to touch typing

I am however not sure about the caps lock vs backspace usage:
- if on one hand caps key is closer, repeated key presses with the pinky seem much harder.
I am afraid this may be something that might take a long time to improve?

Note that I really never used the left pinky that much before...
Any comments?

Thanks again everyone!

Interesting. I just hold down the Caps key and press O for Backspace, which feels really comfortable. If I want Ctrl as well, I hold T.

If you want to improve your pinky you might want to work it out. I play musical instruments.

Yes, you don't really need the "down" word. It can be only  {BS} or {Backspace}. It's quite easy to pick up and use. In case you want to toggle CapsLock, here's what I use (this will only activate by holding LShift while pressing RShift, not the other way around):

LShift & RShift::
    {
    SetCapsLockState , % GetKeyState("CapsLock","t") ? "Off" : "On"
    return
    }

Just remind you that the typing speed follows a log curve, so the speed improvement is much slower after a few months.

I now improve at a speed of 0.3wpm per months (3wpm for this year).

@iNs4nePT

Keep maintain accuracy over 98%. It will pay off at higher speed one day.  I doubt 97% of accuracy would achieve 80WPM+ personally. At least it's based on my experiences. 

I use Typeracer for accuracy practice. In Practice mode, you can type same phrase over and over until you reach to target accuracy. 

Typetest always generate random sentences, which prevents repetition of same context.