[igotrhythm]

The first thing you should do when speedsolving is to "lube the cube." Turn one of the faces 45 degrees, get your finger under one of the corners to pop it off, then put a little petroleum jelly in there, then move around each of the faces to spread it around.

Also, some algorithms are faster than others. Dan Brown's method takes pains to avoid back-face manipulation, and there aren't too many shortcuts you can use with it, so while it's good for learning how to solve for the first time, it's not good for speed.

If you want more advice, I think qqwref is into that stuff.