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For more information on “Penny Wise: The Complete Guide to Saving Money with Online Penny Auctions,” visit www.pennywisethebook.com.

In recent years, online penny auctions have grown tremendously and the new book “Penny Wise: The Complete Guide to Saving Money with Online Penny Auctions” can help those interested become a part of it.

A penny auction is a bidding-fee auction. Participants purchase bids at a pre-set price to use in the online auctions. Each bid typically increases the auction price of the item by a penny. When time expires, the last participant to have placed a bid wins the item, with the additional cost being the final bid price plus shipping.

Written by Baptist Bible College (BBC) Executive Director of Communications and Marketing Ken Knelly and former BBC web designer Joshua Waldron, the book explains the origins of the penny auction industry, the business model behind the sites, basic fundamentals and various auction formats, ways to know when to bid and when not to, developing an online identity; methods of tracking your success, recognizing red flags and problem sites, monetizing your wins and how to start your own website.

“It’s a very different way of buying things, and if you’re not focused on what you’re doing, and you’re not prepared, you won’t get value for what you’re doing, or you might lose your money,” said Knelly.

Knelly was first made aware of penny auctions by his friend and co-author of the book, Waldron.

In the preface, Waldron explains that he discovered penny auctions in 2009 and by December 2009 he launched the website Penny Auction List (http://pennyauctionlist.com/). The website was the first filtered directory of penny auctions on the Web and features penny auction tips, strategies and news.

As more penny auction sites opened and closed, Waldron felt a book was needed.

“There really wasn’t a book out there on the whole business of how it works, a penny auction for dummies-type book,” said Knelly.

Waldron, who now lives in Virginia, reached out to Knelly and the two began work on the book communicating through email, Google docs and over the phone.

After running the website, Waldron was very familiar on the subject, but Knelly admitted he knew very little about the subject when the process began, but said his 13 years of experience working in newspapers helped him learn about the service quickly so he could write about it.

“I always kind of viewed it, when I was in journalism, as the same kind of thing of trying to make ideas clear or help people understand things,” said Knelly.

“My contribution is really the editing, the structure and a good bit of the writing. (Waldron) did some of the writing as well. There is a website that goes with it. I wrote the content for that; he did the design.”

Knelly said one of the things that attracted him to the project was the opportunity to work with Waldron and he also felt it could be a good first project of sorts for his business, Clearberries.

Clearberries guides communication strategies for businesses and nonprofits. Its work includes writing and editing, public relations consulting and a range of other related communications services.

Although “Penny Wise” is not officially Clearberries’ first book, Knelly did use a lot of the skills the business offers in putting it together.

For more information on Clearberries, visit www.clearberries.com.

For more information on “Penny Wise: The Complete Guide to Saving Money with Online Penny Auctions,” visit www.pennywisethebook.com.

The book is available to purchase or download there and other locations, including amazon.com.