I just got a case of socks from littlemissmatched.com. You may remember them from Purple Cow. Hundreds of styles of socks, none match. Three to a sleeve, $10 or so.

Why bother with mismatched socks? Because most people don't want them. The few that do love to talk about them. It makes us happy. Ten dollars for 40 days worth of joy over a few years is a bargain. The obvious market was 12 year old girls, the sort of people who love having people notice their socks. The company is now branching out into more adult (I use the term advisedly) styles. I hope they don't get too popular!  (Not that you care, but I've been wearing their socks every day for three years or so...)

The key lessons:

• The product is the marketing.
• Choose a hive of people who seek out products like yours and then talk about them.
• Be true to what you stand for.
• It's okay not to be serious, especially if you're selling a want, not a need.
• Be patient. The market will find you.