Screencast-o-matic is a powerful online movie maker and recording platform that can be used for screen capture and screencasting. You can use the free version Screencast-o-matic to record YouTube videos, but your creation will include their branded watermark on the lower left hand side of the finished product. Upgrading to the Pro version removes the watermark and allows your video to shine!
I highly recommend that you invest in the Pro version, and for $15 per year it's an affordable solution that should fit everyone's budget. I have relied on this service for the last two years and I'm truly amazed with the flexibility of features and user friendly interface it provides. Many of the tutorial I record are getting lots of views on YouTube and driving traffic back to my blog. This is important because YouTube is the number two search engine on the web and when people find your YouTube videos and eventually visit your blog, they are more likely to subscribe to your email list, spend time surfing your site and engaging further with your content.
Screencast-o-matic Feature List
I'd like to help convert as many of you into YouTubers as I possibly can, simply because I want you to see how easy it is to get started with video marketing. I know you'll have fun recording videos and sharing them with your friends and readers just as I do. There is also a great opportunity to earn an income by monetizing your YouTube Channel with AdSense. Let's go behind the scenes and see what the Screencast-o-matic interface looks like and explore some of the features in this screencast.
How To Use Screencast-o-matic to Record Video for YouTube
- Cut Out
- Hide Mouse
- Trim Around
- Change Speed
- Add Transitions
- Insert More
- Add Overlays
- Zoom in and out
- Edit Audio
- Download Screencast O Matic on your computer
Well at least I hope you watched the short intro that I created using Animoto. There's another tool that you can use to spice up your videos and business presentations. Animoto is also very cool for merging family photos together to photo journals and holiday greetings…but more about that in another blog post.
UPDATE: I got a question from Gail Gardner from Growmap.com on Twitter. Here's her tweet:
Hi @Ileane @BasicBlogTips Do you know if you can save a screencast-o-matic video now and add on to it later in screen-cast-o-matic ?
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) February 15, 2014
I responded to this by creating an Instructable that I pinned on Pinterest. Click to enlarge the image.
The key to making this work is to login to your Pro account on the Screencast-o-matic home page and click on Open Pro Tools. Next you will select Edit > Insert More > New recording.
TIP: Be sure you move the insertion point at the bottom of the screen to the exact spot in the video where you want to add more to the video.
The staff at Screencast-o-matic has created detailed tutorials demonstrating how to use each of the tools I introduced in the video. They also have features I haven't even explored yet, like using scripts to record the audio portion of your tutorial ahead of time for more precise editing functionality. Using scripts are a great way to do product reviews and announcements also. You can hire someone to do the voice-over for the audio and add still images of your products or services to create an advertisement. There are a multitude of ways to take advantage of the extensive feature set of this service. I give it a ten!
Share a link to your Screencast-o-matic vid
I want to see what you have created with this software. If you have a video that you recorded using Screencast-o-matic, share the link in the comments. I'm really anxious to see what you come up with and in the meantime, feel free to ask me any questions or share your thoughts about using my favorite screencasting platform.
Recommended:
- One Crucial Component for a Successful YouTube Collaboration Video
- Get The Call To Action Link You've Been Waiting For On YouTube
- How To Schedule YouTube Video Uploads and Add a Custom Thumbnail
NEW: Screencast-o-matic now offers premium hosting of your videos! Find out how it works and get premium hosting with Screencast-o-matic (this is not an affiliate link) here.
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I have always wanted to make such videos. This will help in making tutorials. Screencast-o-matic’s $12/year fee sounds reasonable.
Cheolsu, you can’t beat the price for what they offer on Screencast-o-matic. Give it a try and let me know what you think. You can come back and post the link to your video from YouTube, when it’s ready.
You’re right there. I don’t think you can beat a price tag of $12 per year! That’s gotta be a punch in the stomach to people who have recently purchased something like the paid version of Camtasia! Looks like this makes videos that are just as good! ~David Walker
Nice tool but there’s enough free software for just this purpose
Marty, Screencast-o-matic has the free option also. Have you tried it yet?
Marty, can you name some of the free software that have similar options?
@Ileane, “You can hire someone to do the voice-over for the audio and add still images of your products or services to create an advertisement” really cought my attention. I still have some videos lying around here that I had done for some products. But I still have to edit them and add product stills, etc.
And I can’t seem to find your post about different places to upload videos for marketing/traffic. (thought I bookmarked it 🙁 )
Btw. do they update the software frequently with new options and fixes?
Hi Danny, I talked about uploading videos to different services on my audio podcast and you can find the info in this post: http://basicpodcastingtips.blogspot.com/2011/09/video-stats-on-tubemogul.html
Here’s a list of the services I currently use (besides YouTube):
Vimeo
Viddler
Daily Motion
Meta Cafe
As far as updates, Screencast-o-matic has made so many updates that I haven’t even explored all of the features yet. They are constantly upgrading the functionality of the tool set.
Yes, I’m feeling the annual fee. And this is something I had been considering for a project I have in mind. Now, is a good time to complete it.
I use Camtasia for my you tube creation, but I feel this is really a great option if people doesn’t want to spend much….also it give all required editing options with a really low price.
Sanjeev, How much does Camtasia cost these days? I remember taking the trial, but I never went through with the purchase.
They have one time fee of $299, though they offer 40% off for education discount (I know its kind of heavy considering they charge for upgrade also). But it does a great job of recording video’s.
Sanjeev, Camtasia has some fantastic features. I think that it’s a good competitor for Adobe products which are even more expensive. You should do some tutorials on how to use Camtasia for making video. If you have one, please share the link.
Thank you! Been trying loads of these and yet to find a solution that I like to create videos/screencasts to augment my online training. Will def check this out.
Hi Angela, you’re welcome. Thanks for the comment.
Great blog post, thanks for sharing this post. You really such an intelligent person. Keep up the good work!
I’ve never use this service, but I’ll try it soon! does it permit to include photos or static images while I recording? where I could find a manual?
Tiana, I linked to the online help center in the post and yes, you can include still images in your Screencast-o-matic videos.
$12 a year? That’s unreal! I don’t know that I will actually do much video blogging, but for $12 a year I don’t know how I could go wrong with it! THANK YOU!
Hi Brandi, you’re welcome. I’m sure you will make at least one or two videos just to get the hang of it.
Hi Ileane,
I see you also mentioned Animoto. I love using this service as I think it allows you to make some really cool videos in no time at all. I log in, upload my media, select my music and hit create. It is a must have tool for anybody who is into making videos.
Chris, Animoto is an awesome tool and I’ll work on a tutorial to demonstrate how I created my video intro with it very soon. If anyone is interested in trying it for feel, please use my affiliate link. Thank you!
I have used many many tools for creating webcasts, and my 2 best are Camtasia Studio (which is not free) and Wondershare DemoCreator which is $99 one time. Though there are good free screen casting utilities depending on how special effects-y you want to get you may need something professional. Of course this doesn’t rule out Adobe’s offering and one of my writers does some amazing screen casting with pic in pic and effects with Adobe.
Another note, don’t forget YouTube gives some ability to edit video’s directly, you can make sections of the video be a selectable hyperlink with YouTube video edit. So if you show a link in the video, modify it with YouTube and you can make it so a user can click on the link and it will open to their site right from the video.
Hi Justin! Adobe Creative Suite is one of the best products you can buy, but the price is really an investment that I would need to save up for.
Justin, I looked at the YouTube editing features and I can’t find how to add a link to anything outside of YouTube. Have you done a tutorial on that? Please show me where that feature is located. Thanks for sharing the info!
I haven’t done a video on it, though I should. It is under the “Edit Annotations” feature. This is specifically how you put a box around text or an image on your video and allow it to be a clickable link.
Justin – Ah! You mean YouTube Annotations feature and they only allow you to link to other content on YouTube, like playlists, channels, other videos or other YouTube user’s content. I have a post about it on my other blog and I’ll do a screencast on it real soon.
The only way to link outside of YouTube is with a Call To Action Overlay. I mention Call to Action and link to a demonstration in this post https://basicblogtips.com/youtube-video-marketing-part-two.html .
It seems to be a nice tool and I think trying free version first is a good idea to go with.
Lalit, You can also use Screenr, that one is free too, but you can’t do any editing. So if you make a big blunder, you have to start from scratch. 🙁
Thanks Ileane.
Hi Ileane, Nice idea about the tutorials on Camtasia, I don’t have any as of now but will create some.
I will give it a shot tonight, I hope I wont be freezing to death when I deliver my intro 🙂
Creation video for YouTube or any other site is always very useful. Especially taking into account the fact that video blogging is becoming more and more popular all over the world
Great tool Ileane. thanks for the info.
Hi Atish, you’re welcome.
Hey that’s a really useful app! I don’t know where you find the time to discover all these tools
Hi Andy, you of all people know how it is to sit in front of a monitor all day. 🙂 Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment my friend!
this tools sounds good but will try trial version first for test
Never created any video for marketing purpose. 🙁 This tool seems great as offering so much features and cost is also affordable. 🙂
Aarti, you’ll find that using video to market your products and services will expand your audience.
Another interesting article, I think there is no issue trying it’s free version and if you find it suitable as per needs then you can get it’s pro version. 😉
Riya, I played around with the free version of Screencast-o-matic for a few days, but it didn’t take long to convince me that Pro is the way to go! But if you want to stick with free – use Screenr and then you don’t have to worry about the watermark appearing on your vids.
At first I wondered if this was needed as there are plenty of programs out there that can do these things but then again, it is nice to have a program that is made specifically for YouTube screen casts. FinalCut and iMovie could probably do most of the things Screencast-O-Matic can do but there is a whole lot of clutter that you have to deal with rather than clean cut and dry program made just for screencasts. Thanks for the heads up on this!
Thanks for the tip, Ileane. This looks easier than Sony Vegas or other editing software so it should be a simple way to put some informative videos up on YouTube.
Hi Darren, if you end up recording anything, please be sure to share a link with me here or on Twitter. Thanks for your comment.
I will indeed! Have a great weekend 🙂
Hi Ileane,
Since reading your last post where you mentioned screencast-o-matic I have been playing with it for hours a day. I love the tool. I am working on my first (very long) video. Thank you for introducing it Ileane.
Yay! I love hearing that. It’s very important to me that you are taking action because of something you found here. If this is your first time setting up a YouTube account, be sure to read Kristi’s contest winning post about how to optimize your profile for SEO. Well actually that post make sense to read even if you have your YouTube account already.
Keep me posted Satrap.
Thanks Ileane.
Yeah, I actually did read Kristi’s post, I have it saved in favorite and I have been going through each profile. There were a few that I wasn’t even aware of, so I set those up as well. I have learned so much from Kristie since I got to know her work a few months back.
Wow nice Ileane, I love video editing, going to try this. I usually use Camtasia for its high quality productions, advanced features and easy settings, but I noticed that your videos are always very high on quality and in HD which means that Screencast-o-matic is defiantly worth a try.
Thanks a lot for sharing. 🙂
Sayed, you just made me smile 🙂 Thanks for checking out the videos on my YouTube channel. I appreciate you for that.
Nice blog. Keep blogging. Please visit mine when you have the time.
This is very interesting! I would love to try it with my daughter’s videos and I will surely follow your advice. Thanks for providing this info.
Hi Mitch, what kind of videos does your daughter create? My daughter made some awesome videos with iMovie. The last one she did with her webcam and it was Nikki Purvy Presents Flight on a Private G5
Ileane, you seriously converted me to a vlogger recently – not to be called a vlogger, but I’m starting to make videos. Well, I use both Screencastomatic (pro) and Camstasia, but since I started using SCM prior to CS, I find the former to be much more comfortable to me. Yet have to unearth more functionality of CS.
Attached in comluv link is a video made with SCM.
And their pro option is really cool for $12/year.
Jane! I’m so excited! You have such a lovely voice. You are a natural for video blogging and this is a great tutorial.
I have a question though, why did you decide to use bliptv? I used to use the service, then out of the blue one day the removed my account. I emailed them several times with no response from them. We can talk more about that via email if you want.
Right now I’m just happy that you are entering the world of video blogging. Best wishes to all of your success!!
Screencast-o-matic! Wow!
Hi! Ileane,
I found my way here via Ana’s site.
About Screencast-o-matic, can I use it to capture objects on my PC or my camera should be able to do that?
I want to go into Video blogging 1st of December or 1st January. I know I need your help.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Chukwuka.
Chukwaka, how nice of Ana Hoffman to send you here. She’s so very helpful 🙂 You’ll be excited to hear that the answer to both of your questions is YES!!
Screencast-o-matic can be used to record EVERYTHING you do on your computer. The only exception is that you can’t use it to record itself 🙂 so in this video tutorial, I used Screenr to make the initial recordings and then Screencast-o-matic to edit those recordings and add my intro and extra footage.
Screencast-o-matic is one heck of an online movie maker isn’t it?!
I hope to see your recordings soon.
Hi,
I have done a couple of videos with Animoto and not had much luck generating any traffic. Screencastomatic looks like it has many more features and is cheaper than Animoto. I think I will give it a try.
Thanks,
Jim
Jim, I’m confused by what you mentioned about Animoto. You created the videos in Animoto but did you upload them to YouTube? I don’t think you can bring in much traffic from just leaving your videos up on the Animoto site or even from embedding them on your website. The traffic comes from YouTube where people are constantly searching for content. Let me know when you get a chance. Thanks for your comment.
I have used different software, but as I am looking at the features it is quite similar with Pro version. The main reason, that I am using different software is that I am not native English speaker and I prefer to make computer generated voice over.
Hi Kal, I’m glad that you aren’t letting the fact that you are not a native English speaker hold you back from making videos! Good for you.
I talked about how people make excuses in my last blog post called Promoting Your Content on YouTube.
This is an awesome tool indeed and I love it. What’s best is that it is so affordable too!
Hi Ana, thanks for stopping by!
The free version of Screencast-o-matic looks like it would work just fine for folks a little tight on cash. I need to tell a friend of mine about this because he’s been wanting to record video, but is strapped on cash at the moment. But heck, for only 12 bucks a year maybe he can get the premium version. Love the how-to video as well. I’ll be sure to pass this along! Peace.
Hi Chuck. It’s a great tool and as I said they keep improving on the features all the time.
There’s another tool they offer that you might find helpful when working with your clients. Check out this 1-on-1 desktop sharing app with remote desktop control: http://QuickScreenShare.com
I haven’t used it yet but if you get a chance, let me know what you think of it.
Great post, Ileane- I had to rush through the last half, because you’d already convinced me that it was something I needed to check out. Unfortunately, for some reason, their site keeps crashing my browser! 🙁
I’ll just have to keep trying, with different browsers, ’til I can make it work, I suppose.
What’s up DOC!! Great to see you. Be sure you have the latest version of Java installed in order to access the recording software. I’m using Chrome and it hasn’t crashed on me in a while. However Flash has been causing Chrome to crash lately, but that’s not related to Screencast-o-matic.
Feel free to come back and share a link to your YouTube channel once you get it working.
I hope that helps and have a great weekend.
i will try the trail version.very nice info mate.keep it up posting 🙂
Let me know if you record a video mate…..
Ileane,
I am using Camtasia for recording my videos. I have the paid version so it works pretty well but I can see how valuable this would be for someone who was using the free version of Camtasia. This is so much cheaper than buying Camtasia and has so much functionality.
I really like that you can record the sound coming out of your computer. There are so many times that I want to record the sound coming out of my computer and I have never found a good tool for that.
I may invest in this just for the ability to record sound off of the computer.
Thanks
Dee Ann Rice
Hey Dee Ann, the guys at Screencast-o-matic really blew me away when they introduced that feature. I started adding intros to my videos and having the flexibility to record sound from my computer has simplified that process tremendously. The other feature I use often is editing the audio with Audacity – which is the final step before uploading to YouTube.
Great post Ilean. Did not know the screencast o matic if that cheap..
Thank you for the information.
Fred Owusu
Hi Fred! Thanks for stopping by. Let me know what you think of Screencast-o-matic after you give it a try.
Thanks for the offer… only if I did not have camtasia studio i would give it a try.. I will definitely offer it to my subscriber or my team if they need this type of product.
I use Screencast-o-matic, too Ileane. This is one of the videos that I’ve made with it: http://youtu.be/ZXqqVQV4Hi0 I’ve also used Animoto quite a bit but I don’t like that you can’t talk during the video. I also used Jing at one time and I’m not sure why I stopped. There was nothing wrong with it. I think I just discovered SOM and liked it better.
Great tutorial Danielle, thanks for sharing that one. I don’t have the same version of Power Point as you but I think I can figure out how to use the old one to recreate what you showed in the video.
There’s a two step process you can use with Animoto and Screencast-o-matic to record your voice over the video – but it might not be worth all that work. You can also record your audio first and then upload that into Animoto as your “music” track. I did that once, but it’s actually a spoken word piece with my friend playing the flute in the background.
Great to see that we’re using the same tools 🙂
I never thought of uploading the audio of my talking to play as a music background but that is a good idea. 🙂 Have you ever used Prezi? I’m still learning it but I’m working on doing a Prezi with a screencast – hoping it will turn out kind of cool.
hold up. You’re saying that with that service, that people are able to use their computer screens as their virtual camera in recording a YouTube video? 🙂
Drewry,
I removed the link from your comment because I’m not sure why you included the link. You can link to your post in CommentLuv.
I usually use Animoto to make videos but I will try this one out.
This is great! I have been looking to find an inexpensive software to use with YouTube and I will be checking this one out. Great tip and demonstration!
Thanks for the information. Do this software have a 30-day trial?
They have a free version, so you can give it a test.
anything pertaining to online video is definitely worth investing your personal time into 🙂
Ileane you have done it again! This is a really great little product available for cheap, cheap, cheap! I just ran out of time on my trial version of Camtasia and really am not feeling speding the 3 Benjamins to use it for longer. I really gotta thank you this post. This Screencasting script is super easy to use and anyone can be recording videos and uploading literally within a few minutes. Last but not least….it plays well with Mac users! VERY SEXY!
Michael, I agree that Camtasia is a bit pricey for me. At only $12 Screencast-o-matic fits in any budget.
I’ve never used this program Ileane because I’ve always just used Camtasia. To be honest with you, my brother had that software for his business so I’ve just been using his, I’ve yet to buy it myself.
Glad you like this software because we definitely need to be happy with what we’re using. Makes it so much more simpler right!
~Adrienne
Adrienne, you are so right about that. I’m really comfortable using Screencast-o-matic because I’ve been using it for 3 years now. I did a trial with Camtasia but it wasn’t a good fit for me. Thanks for your input Adrienne. Lucky for you to get free access to Camtasia. You probably use it more than your brother does at this point. 🙂
You crazy to buy Camtasia or any other screencast app . .. when screencast-o-matic has all the tools and NO INSTALL . . works on any type of computer. I use it daily for quick show and tells . . . or polished long term projects.
Hey Norm, do you have a YouTube channel? I’d love to see some of the videos you’ve done with Screencast-o-matic. If you get a chance, please stop by and share your channel link with us. Thanks!
Ileane, I really appreciate this helpful tutorial on how to make screencasts. I think screencasts are one of the best teaching tools out there, so knowing options for creating them — especially inexpensive ones — is a great help. I will be sure to recommend this to others as well.
Hi Rebecca, really awesome of you to stop by and check out the Screencast-o-matic video. This was done back in November and I plan to do an updated version soon because the guys at Screencast-o-matic work hard to release new features every month. Each month they add at least 2 – 4 new things, so if you add them up that’s almost an entirely different software from the one I demo-ed in this video. Here’s a couple of my favorites:
I really do need to get cracking on making an updated video soon! lol
Have a great week Rebecca and thanks again for stopping by!
Hi Ileane,
Another great tool that is affordable to everyone that is serious about their online efforts. It looks like it comes with all the bells and whistles as well, with a full editing feature and that really is a great tool for us all, especially those starting out.
We all make mistakes during recording and there’s nothing worse than getting to end and mucking it up, only to have to start again. I done that loads of times when I first started and really wish I had editing tools available.
$12 a year = $1 a month, what else can we get for that money that will assist us to move forward. Here in the UK we can’t buy a postage stamp for that. I wish I had know before I bought Camtasia 🙁
Thanks Ileane, this information is really going to help people.
I’ll add your post to the video blog challenge Facebook Fan page 🙂
Take care,
Barry
Hey Barry, aka = rising YouTube Rock Star! lol
You are really chasing the brass ring when it comes to videos Barry and I bet you can find all sorts of ways to get creative with Screencast-o-matic. It’s great to see that you are open to trying new things and expanding your reach online. Thanks for posting this on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter! You’re awesome.
Take care my friend.
Hi,
I think we can download video from youtube as well. If we have IDM then we can download the video from youtube directly. Also there are many other softwares which let you download the video.
Thank you
Thank you for this very helpful post. I just made a video today with screencast-o-matic and I have to say that it was very easy to use. I decided to try to pro service and I will definitely use this software again. I am really impressed with the clarity and quality. Here is a video that I just made on Youtube http://youtu.be/EAA9IKuvXSM
Congrats on taking action and making great use of this powerful software. I’m so proud of you Alicia!
Hi
Great insight. I just wanted to know if there is any issue in monetizing videos made with screencastomatic? I made one with some other software and later came to know it’s not allowed to monetize. Could you please clarify?
Thanks
There is no problem using Screencast-o-matic and monetizing your YouTube videos. As long as the content you created is your own, you’ll be fine. Cheers!
Thanks a lot. Going to upgrade to pro.
Good for you!