Toyota has suffered a number of setbacks in recent months—a spate of recalls over the last couple of months have been especially damaging to their reputations. Apparently their troubles aren’t quite over yet:

The latest batch, while not nearly as dangerous, adds to Toyota’s mounting recall number, which has mushroomed to more than 8 million cars and trucks due to sticky pedals and concerns of sudden unintended acceleration.

Earlier this week, Toyota temporarily suspended sales of the Lexus GX 460 SUV, after the vehicle received a safety warning in Consumer Reports magazine.

I guess Consumer Reports’ safety rating isn’t as good as it used to be, eh? But seriously, eight million cars and trucks is a pretty impressive number.

Everyone, from time to time, has to work the internship in order to move up in the world. However, Lauren Berger sort of took this past-time to an extreme. She built a reputation through experience, though, that is now benefiting her in a big way.

By the time Lauren Berger graduated from University of Central Florida in 2006, she had 15 internships already under her belt. So she felt like an expert when it came to finding and getting them. Even when she landed her first job at Creative Artists Agency, she told everyone who would listen that she was “The Intern Queen.”

She talked about it so much a Hollywood producer took notice and offered to help her launch it as her personal brand.

The Intern Queen seems to be doing quite well now. She’s been listed in BusinessWeek’s Best Entrepreneurs Under 25, an impressive honor.

Jobless claims fell by almost 30,000 last week, giving life to the idea that the recession might be coming to an end. The four-week average doesn’t look quite as good, but maybe the recovery started this week, right!? We can hope.

The reports provide fresh evidence that the economy is steadily growing. But it’s not clear when that improvement will translate into new hiring.

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 469,000. That nearly matches Wall Street analysts’ estimates of 470,000.

Still, last week’s drop only partly reverses a sharp rise in claims in the previous two weeks.

Okay, maybe it doesn’t say anything about a recovery, but at least things aren’t getting worse. If the economy is improving, this is good news for every sector. Especially for the retail sector, which seems to suffer disproportionally from recessions.

The New York Times is making a move to close their website to online viewers and make it pay-to-view. Subscribers will be able to see the website, and all of its content, but random browsers on the Internet will be fresh out of luck. Everything about this move makes me think The Grey Lady is on its way down. All print media has experienced a sharp decline, ever since the advent of the Internet. However, websites of these newspapers have been wary of making their systems pay-to-view because users could simply go elsewhere for similar content and get it for free.

Under the plan, to be launched in early 2011, people who read more than a certain number of articles in a month will be prompted to pay a flat monthly or annual fee for additional access. Print subscribers will have full access to the site

I think this is a bad idea, but there are certainly worse ways to do it.

Why Company Reviews/Testimonials Are So Important

Think about this scenario: You’re in the market for a new lawn mower, so you scan the flyer from the hardware store that comes with the Sunday paper. All of the ads read the same (each manufacturer claims their mower is the best) and the prices between the brands are nearly identical.

So how do you decide which one you’re going to buy? You could just roll the dice and hope for the best, but you’ll probably do what most people do in this situation – ask a friend what he uses.

Word of mouth, reviews, and testimonials are among the least expensive and most powerful forms of advertising you can use to sell your goods or services. Why? Because we trust our friends and neighbors more than we trust corporations. And when it comes to the way the economy is, people want to do business with someone they can trust.

When you read about someone who has had a good experience with a product or company, or when a trusted friend recommends something to you, you’re much more likely to believe it than if it comes from an ad written by a marketing copywriter.

There are several ways your company can put testimonials and reviews to good use in order to boost sales.

The first thing you can do is to include testimonials from satisfied customers in your marketing materials. This can be on your website, in your brochures, in your sales letters, and in any other marketing device you use. In addition to using actual testimonials from happy customers, you can use any positive reviews that have been written about your company or service by an independent party.

Another important tool to use is called a case study. A case study is essentially an expanded testimonial. It details a particular problem that one of your clients had and how your company/product solved that problem. Case studies are powerful marketing tools because they illustrate an actual situation, with a real customer, and how your company helped. People who are considering doing business with your company will gain a lot of confidence from the case study, and case studies convince more people to do business than traditional ads do.

If you’re looking for smarter, more effective ways to spend your marketing dollars, you really should look into making testimonials/reviews the focal point of your marketing efforts. The rewards will be worth much more than the money spent.