Wealth of Geeks

Michael Dinich, Founder

Sayre, PA

Photograph of a person typing on a calculator

2023

How Wealth of Geeks turned pop culture and personal finance into the perfect blog blend

Wealth of Geeks was founded in 2018 as a way to help people reach their financial goals, but it quickly evolved into a one-stop source for the latest updates in tech and gaming, exclusive interviews with your favorite celebrities, and a trusted source for pop culture news.

Using the Force of personal finance

As a financial advisor with 20 years experience, Michael Dinich had never considered launching a website, much less a blog, until someone suggested that it might be a way to drive clients to his financial planning practice. What started as a way to develop client relationships quickly evolved into an exciting side hustle that leveraged both his financial expertise and his love for pop culture. Michael’s site, Wealth of Geeks, launched in January, 2018 and by February, he was ready to give the website a real shot, “it was either going to be a hit or crash and burn,” he says. Over the next few years, it’d become a hit.

“The business would not exist the way it does today without ads.”

How Wealth of Geeks blended personal finance and pop culture

As an industry outsider, Michael’s approach to digital publishing was a bit unconventional. “A majority of personal finance sites and blogs struck me as a bit judgemental,” he recalls. “We wanted to do something different. The idea was to do personal finance content during the week, and fun pop culture content on the weekends.”

People loved the unique combination of content, so much so that Michael started posting entertainment pieces as regularly as their personal finance content. A couple articles went viral, including a particularly successful story on personal finance tips that you could take from the Star Wars movies. And during the pandemic, Michael doubled down on this lighthearted strategy. “There was a backlash against personal finance creators, because people didn’t want to think about investments when the world was upside down because of COVID-19,” he says. “So we decided to give people something fun to take their minds off of things, and some financial help on the side.” They leaned into entertainment and personal finance content, and the site took off. The team began to expand to what it is today, a full staff of three full time editors, two part time editors, one weekend editor, two full time writers and a pool of 30 freelance writers that write for the site consistently.

Growing impact and reach

Today, Wealth of Geeks reaches over 1 million readers each month. “I never would have anticipated this,” says Michael. “A mentor told me that combining pop culture and finance would never work. But it has, and I’m proud that the multiniche idea that we were passionate about originally has been so successful.” On top of this, he’s excited by the opportunity to work with Google Certified Publishing Partner, Raptive, which allows Wealth of Geeks to exist as what it was intended to be – a quirky website that covers a lot of different niches. “70% of Wealth of Geeks revenue is from ads,” says Michael. “The business would not exist the way it does today without ads. Ads gives us the ability to hire people for really good jobs and lets them create fun, unique content that helps build a community.”

An ad-based model also helps Michael and his team stay objective and help those who can’t pay for financial advice. “Most people can’t afford or don’t want to pay for financial advice and we don’t want to recommend financial advice on an affiliate relationship,” he says. “An ad supported model allows us to form and provide an important objective point of view.”

Succeeding with Google tools

Michael attributes a large part of the growth of Wealth of Geeks to the various Google tools his team uses regularly. “Google Analytics is imperative to managing what our content is doing,” he says. “And we wouldn’t be nearly as productive without the help of Google Sheets and Docs, our team is addicted to them!” He’s also sure to mention that without Google’s ads services, Wealth of Geeks would not be able to flourish in the way that it has . “We enjoy using display ads because they allow us to say yes to passion projects - we don’t have to wonder whether or not an article has monetary value, we can write and post what we want.“

Impacting finances and beyond

With Wealth of Geeks, Michael is focused on helping readers. “By helping people improve their personal finances, we’re helping them improve relationships, live better lives and spend more quality time with their families,” he says. It’s this passion for helping people that pushes Wealth of Geeks forward, “I’m most proud of being able to provide a platform that uplifts people,” says Michael. “We hire great people, we treat them well, and help them build their careers. We’re really promoting and creating opportunities for others.”

About the Publisher

Michael Dinich is a personal finance expert, podcaster, YouTuber, and journalist. Michael is the founder of Wealth of Geeks, a rapidly growing personal finance and pop culture website.