Seduced by the success of YouTube, far too many people are mimicking the online video pioneer. But a lot of companies are finding out that it is tough to catch lightning in a bottle. That includes giants like Sony, who invested $55 million in a user generated web video site called Grouper six months ago.

The Grouper experiment has failed. “User-generated video is dead to us,” Grouper founder Josh Felser told an interviewer.

“The same content is on every site,” Felser complained. “Equally as important, you can’t monetize it. Advertisers don’t want to be associated with unpredictable content.”

Grouper, which going forward will be known as Crackle, is bidding to become an online movie studio instead. And that’s a smart move, as they become a site with a specific purpose, making it more likely that they will intelligently use Sony’s resources and skill sets.

A specific purpose is a must. When I first conceived of the idea of Free IQ, the specific purpose was clear, providing visitors with useful, meaningful, skill-building information. Free IQ has a powerful revenue model as well, offering experts on all subjects the opportunity to sell their intellectual property on our site.

Free IQ users don’t have to be content providers to make money with us. By registering as an affiliate, they can profit from the purchases of any users they refer, as well as share in the revenue of sales made by any content providers they introduce to the site.

Web video is here, and will do nothing but grow. But many big players in the industry are discovering that they aren’t going to be the next YouTube. They’re learning that you need to focus on doing something specific and do it well in order to profit from it.

We’re pouring significant resources into making Free IQ an important source of knowledge for visitors. Doing so will provide our content providers and affiliates with a considerable opportunity to profit along with us.

That’s Free IQ’s purpose. And while we’ll never be YouTube, each and every day we’re getting a little bit closer to being that indispensible resource that we know that Free IQ can be.

There is tremendous opportunity for you at Free IQ to distribute, or help others distribute, a ton of valuable information. Historically speaking, do you know who really paved the way for this opportunity? It was Ben Franklin, the foremost information entrepreneur of his time.

From his post in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin invested in young printers throughout the colonies from South Carolina to Massachusetts. Franklin was passionate about creating the ability for colonists to share information. By investing in printers who otherwise would not have been able to afford to get into the business, Franklin formulated a new method of information aggregation. Ben Franklin’s innovation (some have referred to him as the first franchisor) enabled him to achieve tremendous wealth by profiting on the content that was published by others.

You enjoy a similar opportunity today. Free IQ is investing in the construction of a world-class e-commerce platform that enables you to profit from our unique two-tiered affiliate program. You profit on the content sold by other content providers simply by having introduced them to Free IQ.

There are plenty of content categories that remain to be fleshed out on Free IQ. That spells opportunity for you at this moment in time. Surely you know of someone who is a successful information entrepreneur. Have them post their audios, video presentations, or other forms of intellectual property at our site. When they sell a video download, CD set, book, or whatever their preferred media is, you share in the profits.

Benjamin Franklin spent the second half of his life doing exactly what he wanted to do as a result of the smart business moves he made in the first half of his life. Will you become a world-renowned philosopher, inventor, writer, and politician? OK, maybe not, but getting information providers to sell their products on Free IQ could be a logical step toward financial freedom.

If Ben Franklin were around in 2007, he’d be putting on his bifocals and finding information products to distribute at Free IQ. Why don’t you do the same today?

Henry David Thoreau said it. And you’ve heard the quote dozens of times, no doubt. But I believe firmly that even if there is some truth to the thought that most people “live lives of quiet desperation,” many more are searching for adventure and knowledge.

People want knowledge. They want challenges. They want to grow. They want to learn. And they want to do all this in a way that’s invigorating and energizing.

That’s why “The Dangerous Book for Boys” is a publishing phenomenon. The best-seller contains all the essentials that British brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden think a boy should know.

This thoroughly entertaining book includes “how to” directions that would make an overprotective mom blanch and a grade school administrator keel over. Instructions are included on how to make a bow and arrow, construct a battery, hunt and cook a rabbit, tan a hide, create a water bomb, and make a tripwire.

While the lessons on potentially treacherous activity are clearly the hook here, there is plenty of less threatening information in the book, such as how to tie naval knots, historical information on famous battles, poems every boy should know, and a list of important Latin phrases.

One thing the book doesn’t have is instructions on eating fire, which you can find on Free IQ. But truthfully, that’s a little bit of an anomaly on our site. So, if your idea of making yourself dangerous is learning a skill, strategy, or technique that can improve your ability to do your job, grow your business, or pursue a favorite hobby, that’s likely waiting for you on Free IQ.

At Free IQ, we’re making sure that our users are steering well clear of a life of quiet desperation. Why don’t you come learn what you want to learn or teach what you have to share? Come make yourself dangerous with another visit to Free IQ today.

Today, I was interviewed about Free IQ on 640 WGST, one of the top talk radio stations in Atlanta, during the Randy and Spiff morning show.

You can hear the 3 1/2 minute segment on their blog here: see Monday, 7-9-07.

(Hat Tip to our PR Pro, Shira Miller.)

The Randy and Spiff blog, by the way, is a pretty good example of a web site for a radio show. It updates every day to all the major segments with audio links to each one. Plus, it does a pretty good job of using online video to interact with listeners in ways beyond just the non-time-shifted radio show and audio.

Of course they could do a lot more (it’s not even clear that you could join an email list if you wanted to), but compared to many, they’re doing pretty well.