How to Put a Fan's Name in Your Next Video

Putting a fan's name in your next video is a paid Personalized Shoutout delivered as a recorded, edited segment — an intro dedication, a mid-video credit, or an outro mention — rather than a live on-air read. The fan pays upfront and submits the name and detail, and the creator edits it into an upcoming upload within a stated delivery window.

Most gaming creators already do a free version of this: a "shoutout to Jess for the sub" thrown into an outro, or a name read off a supporters list because it happened to make the cut. A paid name-drop offer replaces that improvisation with a scoped order — the fan says exactly what they want said and when, and pays before it's recorded.

Putting a name in an edited upload is the recorded counterpart to reading a shoutout live on your broadcast, covered separately in how to charge for a live shoutout during your stream. A live on-stream read and a recorded video name-drop are fulfilled through the same FanBell Personalized Shoutouts offer; the difference is entirely in how, and where, the creator delivers it.

Which FanBell offer covers a paid video name mention?

A paid name mention inside an edited video is sold through FanBell's Personalized Shoutouts offer, the same offer used for a live on-air read or a private video sent to one fan. The creator sets one price and one delivery window per listing, and chooses whether the mention lands in a public upload or a private file.

FanBell's how-it-works page describes Shoutout fulfillment as asynchronous, stating that creators "deliver asynchronously on your own time within the turnaround you set — no live calls or appointments to schedule" (FanBell — How It Works). FanBell's delivery-time selector caps a Shoutout or Creator Service turnaround at 120 hours, which is 5 days.

A 120-hour ceiling works in favor of a name-drop tied to your "next video": the deadline is matched to a normal upload cadence, not a promise to publish something new the moment an order arrives. If your schedule runs longer than five days, say so in the listing rather than promise a window you can't hit — the same Personalized Shoutouts offer also covers a private recording, so the delivery style is a listing decision rather than a different product.

What are FanBell's exact published policy fields for this offer?

FanBell publishes five fields that govern a paid name mention: the delivery window, the fulfillment mode, the platform fee, the payment mechanics, and the decline-and-refund rule. Every figure in the table below comes from FanBell's own how-it-works or pricing page, which is the authoritative primary source for FanBell's mechanics.

FanBell publishes no required price, no suggested price, and no cap for a Personalized Shoutout, because the creator sets the price on every offer. Any dollar figure elsewhere on this page is therefore a worked calculation from published fees, not a FanBell rate.

How is this different from a live, on-stream shoutout?

A live shoutout is read once in real time, with one take and no edit; a recorded video name mention is captured and edited before publication, so a mispronounced name can be retaken or cut. A live read reaches only the people watching that broadcast, while an edited mention ships inside a video that stays on the channel.

Shelf life is the sharpest difference between the two formats, and Twitch documents its own retention numbers. Twitch's Help Center states that saved past broadcasts are deleted after 7 days for most accounts and 60 days for Twitch Partners, Turbo users and Prime members (Twitch Help — On-Demand Content on Twitch). Twitch's Turbo article states that Twitch Affiliates get 14 days of past-broadcast storage.

A paid name read on a Twitch broadcast therefore disappears when that VOD hits its 7-, 14- or 60-day expiry, while a name edited into a YouTube upload stays visible for as long as the creator leaves the video published. That asymmetry is the operational reason a recorded credit is usually worth more to a fan than a live read, and it is worth stating in the listing so the fan knows what they are buying. If your format is closer to a private video made just for one fan rather than a segment inside your public content, how long should a shoutout be covers that private-delivery version.

Where should the fan's name go in the video?

A fan's paid name mention can go in a cold-open dedication, a mid-video credit, an outro or credits segment, or a dedicated short segment. Placement should match how much attention the mention draws and how much it disrupts the video's structure, and whichever spot a creator picks belongs in the listing before the fan pays.

YouTube's own published limits decide how much room each of those placements actually has, and four of them are worth pricing around. YouTube Help states that end screens can be added only to the last 5–20 seconds of a video, and that a standard 16:9 video can carry up to four end-screen elements (YouTube Help — Add end screens to videos), so a spoken outro credit should land before that window rather than under an end-screen overlay.

YouTube Help states that a creator can add up to 5 info cards to one video (YouTube Help — Add cards to videos), which caps how many fans can receive a clickable on-screen card in a single upload. For a named chapter, YouTube Help states that video chapters require at least three timestamps in ascending order, that the first must start at 00:00, and that the minimum chapter length is 10 seconds (YouTube Help — Add video chapters) — so a "your own chapter" tier has to be at least 10 seconds of real content.

If the mention is written rather than spoken, YouTube Help states that video titles have a character limit of 100 characters and video descriptions a limit of 5,000 characters (YouTube Help — Edit video settings), which is the hard ceiling on a "your name in the description credits" tier.

"Your name in the opening 10 seconds" and "your name in the end-credits list" are different products worth different prices — don't leave the fan to guess which one they're getting.

What should a video name-drop listing include?

A video name-drop listing should state five things before a fan pays: the placement in the video, which upcoming upload it lands in, exactly what is included, the delivery window, and the decline condition. Naming all five turns an informal shoutout request into a scoped order the fan can hold the creator to.

• Placement: intro, mid-video, outro/credits, or a standalone segment.
• Which upcoming video: your very next upload, or "the next video where it fits."
• What's included: the name, correct pronunciation, one detail, and whether it's spoken, on-screen, or both.
• Delivery window: a deadline inside FanBell's published 1–120 hour delivery range.
• Decline condition: what you won't feature, and that it's refunded if it doesn't fit.

A worked example: "Your name read in the outro of my next upload, within 5 days of purchase. Includes your name, correct pronunciation, and one detail you provide. I'll decline and refund anything that breaks my content guidelines."

How much should you charge for a name mention in a video?

FanBell publishes no required or suggested price for a video name mention, because the creator sets the price on every Personalized Shoutout offer. What is fixed and published is the deduction: a 12% FanBell platform fee plus Stripe card processing, so the useful calculation is what a given listed price actually leaves in your account.

FanBell's pricing page states the formula plainly as "Creator earnings = fan payment − platform fee − processing fee". FanBell's pricing page states that the platform fee is 12%, charged only when a fan pays, on top of $0 per month. Stripe's published pricing for standard US domestic online card payments is 2.9% plus $0.30 per successful charge (Stripe — Pricing); international cards, currency conversion and other payment methods are priced separately on that same page.

Combining those two published rates, a listed price of P leaves the creator P × (1 − 0.12 − 0.029) − $0.30 on a US card, which is P × 0.851 − $0.30.

The four columns above are arithmetic on FanBell's published 12% fee and Stripe's published 2.9% + $0.30 US card rate, not prices anyone reports charging. Set the listed price from what the placement is worth on your channel — a name in a cold open on a channel people actually watch is worth more than the minutes it takes to cut — then use the table to check the number that lands in your account.

Do you have to disclose a paid name mention?

A birthday dedication or memorial credit a fan buys for themselves is not a brand endorsement. A mention promoting a business, brand, channel, or product is a commercial relationship, and both YouTube's paid-promotion policy and US Federal Trade Commission endorsement guidance apply to it. Read the exact wording of both before selling that second kind.

"If your content has a paid product placement, endorsement, or other commercial relationship, you need to tell YouTube" — YouTube Help, Add paid product placements, sponsorships & endorsements

YouTube Help states that when a video is marked as containing paid promotion, YouTube "automatically show[s] viewers a disclosure message for 10 seconds at the beginning of the video", so a sponsored name mention changes what the first 10 seconds of the upload look like to every viewer.

"A 'material connection' to the brand includes a personal, family, or employment relationship or a financial relationship" — US Federal Trade Commission, Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers

The FTC's endorsement guides state that for video content the disclosure belongs "in the video itself," not solely in the description (FTC — The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking). A practical rule for a name-drop listing: state that you will not sell a mention that promotes a product or business, or that you will mark the video as containing paid promotion and disclose the mention out loud if you do.

Do you need YouTube Partner status to sell a name mention?

No. Selling a paid name mention through FanBell does not require YouTube Partner Program status, because the fan pays on the creator's FanBell page through Stripe rather than through YouTube's built-in monetization tools. YouTube's subscriber and watch-hour thresholds gate YouTube-native ad revenue and fan funding, not a payment link in a video description.

To earn ad revenue through the YouTube Partner Program, YouTube Help states that a channel currently needs 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million valid Shorts views in the past 90 days. YouTube Help states that the lower fan-funding-only tier requires 500 subscribers, 3 public uploads in the past 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 3 million Shorts views in the past 90 days (YouTube Help — Eligibility for fan funding features).

YouTube announced on its official blog in August 2026 that from February 1, 2027, new Partner Program applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, alongside the unchanged 1,000-subscriber requirement. YouTube Help states the same change in its own words: "Starting Feb. 1, 2027, YPP entry thresholds for new creators are changing to 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days, or 20M qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days". Both YouTube sources frame the February 1, 2027 thresholds as entry requirements for new applicants rather than a re-test of channels already in the program.

A FanBell Shoutout offer clears a lower bar than either YouTube tier, because FanBell's pricing page publishes no follower, subscriber, watch-hour or upload minimum and no monthly fee.

How does a paid name mention compare to YouTube monetization?

YouTube ad revenue and a paid name mention are separate income streams that run at the same time on the same upload. Ad revenue is a percentage share of what advertisers pay across a whole video's views; a name mention is a fixed price one fan pays for one credit, unaffected by how many people eventually watch. Neither replaces the other.

YouTube Help states that monetizing creators receive 55% of net revenues from ads served on their long-form watch pages. YouTube Help states that creators in the Shorts monetization module keep 45% of their allocated Shorts revenue, regardless of whether music was used.

Every threshold and percentage in the table above is YouTube's own published figure from YouTube Partner Program eligibility, YouTube partner earnings overview and Shorts monetization and revenue sharing; the FanBell row is from FanBell — Pricing.

What if the fan's request doesn't fit your video?

Decline the request and refund the fan. FanBell's published policy is that a creator can decline and refund a request rather than fulfill one that breaks their stated guidelines. Writing the boundaries into the listing — nothing about a third party, nothing that clashes with the channel's rating — reduces how often a decline is needed.

FanBell's how-it-works page answers the question "What if I get a request I don't want to fulfil?" with: "You can decline and refund it. You're always in control of what you take on.". On the money side, FanBell's pricing page states that "Refunds are supported and may reverse the payment, transfer, and platform fee depending on the transaction status".

If a request can't wait for your normal upload schedule, a private recorded shoutout sent directly to the fan is a cleaner fallback than forcing the request into a video where it doesn't fit. What a personalized shoutout should include covers scripting that private version.

Frequently asked questions

The questions below cover the four things creators most often check before listing a paid video name mention: whether the mention must appear in the very next upload, whether several fans can share one video, whether YouTube Partner Program status is required, and how a public name-drop differs from a private personalized shoutout.

Does the fan's name have to go in my very next upload?

Only if that is what the listing promises. Some creators commit to "your next video," others to "the next video where it fits" — a montage, a Q&A, an outro segment. Either works; state which one, and set a delivery window inside FanBell's published 1–120 hour range.

Can I put more than one fan's name in the same video?

Yes, and each fan's mention is a separate paid order. FanBell's how-it-works page describes the flow as one request per payment, stating that "their request lands in your creator inbox as a private thread". FanBell publishes no rule about how many delivered orders may share a single upload, so treat a multi-name credits segment as operational practice rather than a stated policy. If you plan to give each of those fans a clickable on-screen card, note that YouTube Help caps info cards at 5 per video.

Do I need YouTube Partner Program status to sell this?

No. A FanBell Shoutout offer runs on the creator's own page through Stripe, independent of the YouTube Partner Program's published entry bar of 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views, and independent of YouTube's 500-subscriber fan-funding tier. FanBell's pricing page publishes no equivalent audience minimum.

What's the difference between this and a private personalized shoutout?

A video name-drop is fulfilled inside the creator's own public content, so other viewers see it too. A private personalized shoutout is a separate recording made just for the fan and delivered only to that fan. Both are sold as the same Personalized Shoutouts offer; the delivery style is the creator's choice, stated up front in the listing.

Sell the shoutouts you're already giving away in outros and credits instead of leaving them to chance. Create your free FanBell page and turn your next "shoutout to" moment into a priced order.