Building a niche-leading YouTube channel takes a lot of passion, constant work and the occasional leap of faith. Language and history buff Raffaello Urbani turned his dedication – and a chunk of his teaching salary – into the foundation for Metatron.
At nearly a million subscribers (“noble ones”) on the main channel, he is one of YouTube’s best-known historians.
Here’s the story of how his channel evolved over the years. He shared with us how he found his niche – including why he sank five grand into historical military gear – and how he was able to quit his day job, grow Metatron, and move to daily uploads.
Quick Facts
- Raffaello Urbani is an Italian-born YouTuber who specializes in historical content, especially Roman and medieval military history.
- Originally a university language teacher with a history background, he started his YouTube channel Metatron in 2013.
- He and a team of archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, and video editors produce daily history content for almost 1 million subscribers.
Keep reading for the full story!
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Contents
A History Passion Turned YouTube Calling
“Originally, I was a full-time teacher. I was working on European funds for university and research, mostly teaching languages and a little bit of history,” Urbani recalls. “At the time, I had been watching channels that were predominantly doing history – medieval history, Roman history. I’d always been a geek, always loved that sort of content.”
“And so, at one point, I thought – hey, I’d like to make a video too.”
Urbani’s early content drew on his in-depth knowledge of history and languages. In one video, he recited the beginning of Dante’s Inferno in Italian – from memory. In another, he took a deep-dive into basic longsword stances.
“I never thought that the channel would actually take off. My early videos were getting 30 views and I was a full-time teacher. But then, after teaching and coming home, working a little bit on the channel, rinse and repeat for a couple of years, it actually started to grow.”
Teardowns of games and movies set in ancient and medieval times are a crucial part of Metatron’s rapid-fire content strategy.
Becoming a Full-Time YouTuber
“After two years, I could monetize and could invest a bit – in a few helmets and breastplates. Then, I took a little bit of a leap of faith,” Urbani says.
“I’ll be honest with you – my teacher’s salary wasn’t great. So at one point, I took 5,000 euros and invested in some medieval and Roman reenactment gear for the channel. I thought, I’ll just try it, and if it doesn’t work I’ll keep the gear and I’ll still love it.”
Urbani’s bet paid off massively. In the third year of running his channel, he quit his job and became a full-time YouTuber. Over time, he honed his content strategy, refining it to tailor it to his audience’s interests and to win over the YouTube algorithm.
“At first, the channel was very multifaceted – I was talking about languages, video games, history: I was even playing the piano. All sorts of things,” he explains. “I think that that’s important at first, when you don’t have a niche yet. You try out all sorts of things and see what sticks – for me that was military history in particular.”
Polyglot Urbani also has a lot to say about the linguistics of ancient and modern languages – and where they differ.
An Evolving Strategy
Why exactly did he splurge on the gear, though?
One of the major challenges Urbani faced was how to make his channel stand out. As he well knew, he had a myriad of history YouTube competitors – he’d been watching them himself.
His solution? To combine his love for history with his passion for reenactment and historically accurate clothes.
“I’d dress up like a medieval man. For instance, I wore a historically accurate 15th century doublet – made to my specifications based on paintings by De La Francesca, a Tuscan painter from the period,” Urbani reflects. “I started doing that and that’s what really got the channel to what it is now. Did it change over the years? Absolutely. You’re constantly struggling with the algorithm. But at the end of the day, I think what really made it stand out was that I was very passionate about it.”
Assembling a Team to Scale Up Content Quality and Quantity
Growing a successful YouTube channel takes consistent work. That suited Urbani, who defines himself as a bit of a workaholic. Having lived in Japan, the U.K., and the U.S., he finds that the work ethics of different places have rubbed off on him.
He’s not going it alone, though. To scale up, Urbani assembled a research and production team over the years. He now works on increasing the quantity of his content while keeping it up to the same quality standards his audience has come to love.
Apart from professional video editors to help him polish his content, he also has a group of academics to help with research. “I’m working with an expert on African history, with an Egyptologist, a classicist, an anthropologist and two linguists. Some of them are former archaeologists with two years of experience digging in Syria, several have PhDs and are published authors in high esteem.”
Together with his team, Urbani has expanded the scope of his channel and increased his upload frequency.
The effect was nearly immediate: “I recently started uploading daily videos and I’ve seen five times more growth since then. I’ve had to work more, yes, but I had to learn to work smarter rather than harder. Without delegation, that would be impossible,” Urbani explains.
“My team has helped me expanded my content into a different realm. I’m really excited about that. I love what I do, so even if I put in 10 hours a day, I’m good. I love it.”
FAQs
Raffaello Urbani is an Italian content creator who specializes in history deep-dives.
Raffaello Urbani is Italian. He has lived in Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. as well.
The successful Metatron YouTube channel is run by Raffaello Urbani, a history content creator who lives in Italy.
Metatron is a reliable source for historical deep-dives. Content creator Raffaello Urbani has a team of historians and archaeologists to help with research and scriptwriting. He also leverages his own background as a former teacher.
One of the best history channels on YouTube is Metatron. It’s run by Italian content creator Raffaello Urbani, and the videos are based on the research of a team of professional archaeologists and historians.
