When you read stuff on the internet, it’s difficult to know what’s true and what’s not – generally all one can do is assess an authors credibility by what they say and how accurate it is. Everyone makes mistakes occasionally, but if people are making major errors of fact in their posts … well, it damages their credibility. If those errors are about what their entire post and/or blog is about, it damages the credibility of everything they post. Amway critics regularly try to damage the credibility of this site by attacking me (with often wildly inaccurate claims) rather than what I say and the information I present. It doesn’t matter, this site isn’t about me, I don’t care what you think about me - judge the credibility of what I write. Is it generally accurate? Do I backed it up by sources when I can? Judge what I write, not me. When someone resorts to ad hominem what it really does is reveal how little logical and factual basis the attacker has to try to discredit the other person – if you can’t attack the argument, attack the person.

So what’s the credibility of the Amway critics like? For just two examples, it was discovered several years ago that prolific Amway critic Scott Larsen didn’t know the basics of the 4% leadership bonus and a number of his supposed Amway business “analysis” were based on a complete fallacy. More recently an Indian blogger, Shyam Sundar with the impressively named “Corporate Fraud Watch” blog referred to the 6% bonus level as “ruby” and has made various other claims about Amway that show he has no actual idea how the business works. Now, these guys aren’t necessarily being dishonest here (unlike JoeCool) - they’re just ignorant. They simply don’t know what they’re talking about. What’s sad is that many “beliefs” about the Amway business are based not on reality, but on these “false facts” and ignorance – perhaps sadder though is that many people investigating the Amway business read these sites and believe them.

Today I encountered yet another example of the kind of prolific ignorance I’m talking about. I’ve noticed over the last few years that (the TEAM debacle aside) there’s been a real drop in the number of Amway critics on the internet, in particular those who have had any actual experience with the business. Surprisingly, most Amway critics on the ‘net have had no personal experience at all with Amway and those that have been Amway distributors had their experiences as much as a decade or more ago. Yet many of these same critics all keep claiming nothing has changed with Amway – that even the legitimate criticisms they had (and there are quite a few) still apply in 2009. If so, where are all the new Amway critics?

To their credit, they do seem to realise that the lack of new Amway critics, and the lack of activity on anti-Amway internet forums, must mean something. But what? I think it means that many of the aspects of Amway (primarily how some people approached the business, and prospects) have been significantly improved over the last decade. Amway has for example implented things like accreditation for Amway Global (North America), ensuring those offering training and motivational products and services to Amway business owners have clear guidelines about what they can and cannot say and do. Amway has also terminated numerous Diamonds and above over the past decade or so. Indeed it’s interesting to note that former Emerald Eric Scheibler’s upline Diamond Fred Harteis is no longer with Amway. Neither are various Diamonds and above in the upline of former Emerald Jeff Probant. Indeed, I believe even Scott Larsen’s upline (for his very small time in the business) is out.

Things have changed.

Amway critics though have come up with another reason for the lack of new Amway critics – the business in North America must be dying, nobody new is joining, so there’s no new critics. This is a semi-plausible explanation – except it doesn’t seem backed up by any facts. Amway Global sales were probably down slightly last year, but may even have gone up - and this is in the context of some 30,000 active IBOs leaving in the TEAM debacle. This would seem to be evidence that other groups within Amway must be growing quite significantly, not shrinking. Furthermore, and this is anecdotal so needs to be treated with appropriate caution, I’ve had reports from multiple different sources that sponsoring rates in North America are up significantly this year. Traffic on my sites, AmwayWiki, AmwayWatch, AmwayTalk and The Truth About Amway has increased by more than 200% in the past year. Amway Global Achieve magazine continues to recognize page after page of new Silver Producers and above. Amway critics have no idea whether Amway Global is growing or not, they’re just idle gossipers. I’m reminded of a post I did last year, where I highlighted an Amway critic claiming a certain Emerald’s business was falling apart, he was no longer qualifying, and he was probably going to have to get a job. The only problem was … this “Emerald”, whose business was supposedly falling apart, had just qualified Diamond!

And that’s what this post is about – credibility – and for that I give you this quote from Amway critic Rocket, today explaining why the numbers of platinums being recognized by Amway Global has no bearing on whether Amway Global is growing or shrinking -

You could have a guy in Canada who immigrated from India, and sponsors his friends back in India, but nobody else in Canada, yet still attains a platinum pin.

No Rocket, you can’t. Platinum volume comes entirely in market – ie, if you are recognized as a new Platinum in North America, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a Crown Ambassador in a leg in China – his volume does not count towards your Platinum volume. This isn’t some secret knowledge – knowing what’s required to qualify Platinum is one of the most basic pieces of information even a beginning Amway business owner would want to know. Yet rocket, who has been commenting on Amway for years, including running his own anti-Amway blog for more than 4 years … well, he doesn’t even know this basic piece of information.

And it’s not just Rocket … JoeCool commented on Rocket’s post and didn’t seem to notice this major blunder at the heart of it. Scott Larsen added his thoughts as well – no mention from him of the blunder either, nor from another critic  “mrmaximum”. None of these Amway critics seem to know even this basic tenet of the Amway business – do people really believe what these guys write?

Clueless.