What makes it a horrible business model? If you spend time and energy to acquire knowledge that brings value to others, why shouldn't you charge for that time and energy?
Discussion
The only horrible business model is letting people grift you with no return.
Sounds like there's some context to this discussion I'm not aware of :)
You absolutely can, the point is that if you *are* making that into continuous revenue stream from that you're not charging for information, but rather for your expertise.