General Motors Co. rode expense cuts from its bankruptcy and strong sales of redesigned models to its first quarterly net income in nearly three years, drawing the company closer to a stock offering that would repay at least part of its government aid.The Detroit automaker said it made money because debt and other expenses were slashed by its stay in bankruptcy court last year, and because of strong new-model sales. It also generated higher revenue from growth in Asia and South America.

GM reported net income of $865 million, or $1.66 per share, in the first quarter. That compared with a loss of $6 billion loss, or $9.78 per share, a year earlier, as it skidded into bankruptcy protection. First-quarter revenue soared 40 percent to $31.5 billion.

These are major gains in a pretty small period of time. Cutting costs was the key, it seems.

If Congress approves the head postmaster’s proposal, the change will take effect as early as October.

USPS officials say the move will help the postal service save $3.3 billion a year.

But, around 49,000 people may lose their jobs with the postal service as a result of the changes.

The Myrtle Beach postmaster says the volume of mail delivered nationwide dropped by 13% in 2009 and is expected to fall by 11% this year.

Either way things look sort of bleak, don’t they? Either the Post Office goes into a staggering amount of debt, gets bailed out by Congress, or 49,000 people lose their jobs.

In another sign that the U.S. housing recovery might be on a shaky foundation, the number of homes placed under sales contract fell 7.6% in January, according to a national index.

The National Assn. of Realtors said Thursday that its pending home sales index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in January, fell to 90.4 from an upwardly revised 97.8 in December.

It isn’t all bad news, though, the index remains 12.3% higher than in January of 2009. As for the reason sales declined, the NAR blamed the cold weather and snow in January for the decline, which seems dubious.

Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the government through a legal process known as conservatorship in September 2008. So far, the companies have taken $112 billion in government aid to stay afloat, and they are likely to incur larger losses as defaults rise on mortgages that they own and guarantee.

Last month, the companies’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, approved compensation packages for senior executives of both companies. While some senior executives could receive multi-million-dollar pay packages, the agreements capped pay for other officers at $500,000.

More on both the political and business implications of this bill here.

The reason these marketing techniques work so well is because people generally trust word of mouth advertising more than they trust traditional advertising.

Think about it, are you more likely to go to a restaurant because of an ad you read in the paper or because your best friend told you how great it was?

People trust the advice they get from friends, independent resources and people they deem to be like them.

There are plenty of ways to improve your business by adding reviews and testimonials to your marketing efforts.

• Website marketing – A website is a great place to add testimonials from people who have had good experiences with your company or product. While it’s a good idea to have a page dedicated to testimonials, you should also sprinkle them throughout your entire site.

• Print marketing – If your company produces a lot of printed marketing materials like brochures and ads, consider making testimonials and/or favorable company reviews the focal point of those materials.

• Case studies – People love case studies because they showcase a real problem that someone had, and then detail how your company/product fixed it. Case studies are basically expanded testimonials that give more details about how the situation was handled by you, your company or your product.