Want to learn how to video your computer screen? Take 5 minutes and you’ll have your own free system to record whatever you want right from your very own computer screen.
Screen capture systems are awesome for…
- Business Presentations
- Video Tutorials
- Sharing info to friends, family, colleagues, or even with a blog audience.
There are a number of computer screen capture programs out there. One of the better programs that has both a free version and a super inexpensive premium version ($12/year), I recommend Sreencast-O-Matic.
The price is right and the functionality of Screencast is great. It’s easy to use, easy to publish to your computer via YouTube and in no time at all you’ll be sharing whatever you like – that you can record from a computer’s screen.
How To Video Your Computer Screen:
The video below is produced by a colleague of mine from the Wealthy Affiliate Online Business Training Center.
Wealthy Affiliate (WA) is the best training program to learn internet marketing and online business.
Here’s some of the incredible online skills you can learn, such as…
- Website Development
- SEO skills (search engine optimization)
- Content and Video Marketing
- Online Business Creation
- Affiliate Marketing
Craig from WA will be our presenter today and he’ll walk us through using Screencast-O-Matic to show you how to video your computer screen.
Let’s begin.
The screen-cast that Craig made showed the keyword research tool called Jaaxy.
Check them out if you need help writing content that ranks, checking website rankings, and finding content ideas (just to name a few of Jaaxy’s awesome functionalities).
You can see how easy it was for Craig to use Screencast-O-Matic to video record his computer screen.
It’s easy to speak about whatever topic you want to discuss as you record you computer screen. The end result of the video is very professional.
You can go to Screencast-O-Matic here and use it for free, you most likely will just need to install a free Java plugin.
Pros & Cons of Free Membership:
The obvious benefits of the free membership of the computer screen capture system of Screencast-O-Matic sytem are obvious.
- It’s free to use, no registration or log in.
- It holds up to 15 minutes of video which is plenty enough time to make a video – Remember that the most successful videos are short, sweet, and to the point in order to capture and keep your audience’s attention
- You can publish your videos directly to YouTube in high definition
- As well you can publish them to your computer and edit them with Windows Media Maker
- You can publish to MP4, AVI, GIF, and FLV movie
- PLUS, you’ve got that cool yellow circle highlighter to point out various things within your video that are relevant to whatever you are discussing during your video presentation
The Cons of using the free version of Screencast-O-Matic’s to capture your computer screen video include:
- Limited ability to edit your video to make it appear more professional
- You have the screencast-o-matic watermark in your videos
- You’re unable to publish to Google Drive, Vimeo, and other video media websites
- Non access to editing and script tools
- Inability to draw and zoom in while recording your videos
- And you can’t add webcam recordings
How To Embed & Share Computer Screen Videos:
It’s really easy to embed and share screencast videos. Once you’ve perfected your video using Screencast-O-Matic, you have the option to publish it to YouTube.
This is what I would strongly recommend you do versus downloading it to your computer, and then adding it to WordPress or whatever content management system you use.
Why?
YouTube video take up much less space on your website than loading your video file directly into your media library within your Content Management System.
Plus it’s much easier and quicker to do so.
You can share your screen capture video on your social sites.
Let me show you what I’m talking about using the screen capture video I made from Screencast-O-Matic.
Recording Your Computer Screen Conclusion:
Screencast-O-Matic is fun and easy to use and after playing around with it for a few minutes I was able to understand how to use it for my blog or for sharing something that I like with friends via email, Facebook, G-Plus, etc.
And if you want a little more professional version for editing your videos, I would highly recommend using the Pro Version, it’s pretty much nothing for $12/year.
Here’s My Top Recommended Training >>
I hope you have enjoyed this quick tutorial of how to video your computer screen using Screencast-O-Matic. If you have any questions, leave us a comment.
Cheers,
Todd
Awesome post!
Those were both great videos and very informative. I think I will give screen-o-matic a try.
I have a public speaking event coming up and was have been looking for an affordable program like this.
I think I will go and try the free version right now.
Do you know of any good video editing programs for google Chromebook?
Do I have to start my own you tube channel to upload videos? and does that cost money?
Thanks again for this post.
Ryan Sims
Hi Ryan,
The free version is fine, it only has the watermark and limited by length of time of recording. But for the most part, you want to keep your videos short and sweet.
Not sure about Chromebook. You do need to start a YouTube channel, but that’s free to do. Then once you upload your video, it’s easy to grab the code and and place it in your html editor.
It’s easy to video your computer screen and the free version should work find.
Thanks for your feedback,
Todd
Hey nice review on how to video record your computer screen. I’ve been looking for a program like this. Most are pretty expensive. Right now I’m using Jing, but it only lets me do 5 minutes worth of video. I checked their website and it has good features. This one is definitely worth the money. Thanks for the information.
Hi Andres, I think Jing is pretty good too. All the free screencast services limit the amount of time for their free versions, which is usually sufficient time for the videos. In general, you should shoot for quick videos that grab the viewers attention and get to the point. But I do know when there’s situations where it’s beneficial to have the pro version and not be limited to video time, etc. But yeah ScreenCast has got a great service and the price is right.
Thanks,
Todd
Hi Todd,
First of all, I really like you review on how to video your computer screen, great job! 🙂
I really like the idea of making videos to promote products I recommend, I think it’s a really great way to present your thoughts!
Im writing posts from my laptop most of the times and sometimes and can’t use a charger. Don’t you think making video of my screen would make my batteries would run out of energy?
Thanks for your answer in advance,
Adam
Hi Adam, thanks for your feedback on our video your computer screen post, much appreciated. I would imagine that running excessive programs on your computer is going to wear down your battery power pretty fast. If you’re going to be working online by creating your own online business, you going to need good computer access and time to build content and videos.
Videos can really help express yourself and aren’t hard to get ranked on YouTube if you know what you’re doing. Make sure you get something done with your battery issue so you don’t have any other barriers with your online career.
For those who don’t know how to rank written and video content for Google and YouTube, I’d highly encourage you to take the training at the Wealthy Affiliate Training Center.
These are the same guys I used to learn how to do pretty much everything with my online businesses. And using their training I’ve been able to create a full time online business – Highly Recommended.
Best,
Todd
Hi Todd, great article! Just yesterday I was looking for screen recorder programs and couldn’t find anything I like. This looks promising, so I will give it a try (well my son will give it a try). I’m from Colombia, but leaving in Sweden right now. I hope you like Medellin, it is a nice city. 🙂
Hi Jenny,
Awesome, glad you found it easy to learn how to video your computer screen with this post. We try to get as many helpful posts out there as we can.
I fell in love with Colombia and Medellin over 6 years ago. What a great place to enjoy the culture, improve ones Spanish, and learn a little Salsa. Sweden’s got to be a big change. I bet they love getting to know you and learning about your culture as much as you’re enjoying their’s.
Thanks again for your feedback and take care.
Salud,
Todd
Thanks a lot for the info on how to video your computer screen, I’ve been looking for a good, economical system. Free sounds just about right.
I did screen casting videos before using other tools but this one seems to me much better and convenient.
I definitely will check out screencast-o-matic for future screen casts and as you mentioned $12 per year is peanuts.
Thank you sir for your feedback. I think screencast provides an excellent way to capture your computer screen for presentations. If you need something more fancy, that’s gonna cost you, but for simple educational videos, these guys work great.
Best,
Todd
Your over view of Screencast-O-Matic was greatly appreciated. I am doing a bit of research on incorporating videos into my own website so your article was very helpful. I need something easy and inexpensive.
Other than FREE, you can’t hardly go wrong at $12 per year, especially knowing how much more you can get. I like that with the paid program you can get rid of the watermark. Definitely more professional looking.
Do you know if there are any upsells or improvements in the near future?
Hi Debra,
Thanks for your feedback on Screencast-O-Matic. There are no up-sells with these guys the last time I checked them out. There one of the good companies that I’ve worked with online to incorporate video in my site as well.
I haven’t heard of any improvements to their programming software, but I really think it functions well for capturing your computer while making a presentation. There’s other software that’s also really high quality and costs a bit more, but for this post, I was just trying to reach those who need a simple and economical solution to screen capture.
Give them a go for your next post or YouTube instructional video, most won’t even notice the watermark. If you really want to take your video presentations up, that’s a whole other topic with a completely different budget.
Thanks,
Todd