Amway the company is not a bad outfit. Most of their poor reputation comes from the questionable practices of their distributors (the individuals selling the stuff). As with most network marketing plans, it looks great on paper but serious money is made only by a small percentage of folks who have a real knack for this type of sales. An individual needs a large organization under him to generate good earnings, as it's virtually impossible to do well on the products you can personally sell. It's selling the idea to others that really pays off.

Because a chart of the compensation plan looks pyramidal, network marketing (or multilevel marketing) is often called a pyramid plan. Technically, a pyramid scheme (also called a Ponzi scheme) is an illegal scam that depends on getting significant amounts of money from new recruits, who procede to try to get further recruits to give them money, who procede etc. Some pryamid schemes attempt to give themselves an air of legitimacy by including some bogus product, but that tends to be pretty transparent. Network marketing has its own problems, but the reputable companies really are selling useful (to some, anyway) products or services and don't require huge investments just to get on board. It is not properly called a pyramid plan, and is to be distinguished from those illegal and victimizing operations.