Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2012. In 2016, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as the successor.
Screencasts are an effective way to promote your products or services. As a video tutorial, a product demonstration, or for reviewing the strengths of your company, screencasts offer substantial benefits.
Here are eleven free tools to build and promote business screencasts.
Screenr
The free version of Screenr allows you to record everything that is happening on your screen, including your own voice over. From there, you can share the screencast via social media, and upload it to YouTube.
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CamStudio
CamStudio is a free software solution for creating on screen tutorials and other types of screencasts. CamStudio allows you to generate optimized streaming Flash videos — SWF files — of your recordings.
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Freeseer
Freeseer is open source software, free to download and use, that can capture computer desktop screen presentations as well as video from a web cam. Freeseer is also capable of streaming live video.
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Jing
Jing is free screencasting software that allows you to record screencasts and mark them up with text and highlights. Jing works both with video, and simple screen-capture images.
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Webinaria
Although billed as a service for creating software demos, Webinaria is another free screencasting software.
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Ezvid.com
Capable of recording screen sessions in HD, Ezvid offers speech synthesis, screen capture, web cam support, screen drawing for adding notes, and speed control to slow down portions of your screencast.
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Screencast.com
Screencast.com is a resource for sharing your tutorials and demonstrations once completed. A free account allows for 2 gigabytes of storage, and 2 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth transfer.
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YouTube
While it may seem obvious, uploading your completed screencast to YouTube is an excellent way to ensure it receives a good amount of exposure.
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Screencast-O-Matic
The free version of Screencast-O-Matic allows for the recording of videos up to 15 minutes in length. You can download completed screencasts to various file formats, including MP4, AVI, and FLV. A watermark will appear in your videos until you upgrade to the Pro Version.
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Overstream
Overstream allows you to add text captions and subtitles to streaming video.
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Wink
Ultra simple in design, Wink allows for the capturing of screenshots, and allows the addition of call outs and text boxes for full explanation of what the viewer is seeing.
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