Actually patio11 makes most of his cash from his personal consulting gigs, rather than his lifestyle businesses[1] and thus he falls into the category of people who make money advising you how to make money, which treads the scammy line in my opinion.
which of course is your prerogative, although I fail too see how it's scammy if you're actually making money following his advice, which his clients reportedly do
[1] http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/12/29/bingo-card-creator-and-o...