A free screencast tool to make your site sizzle

Bloggers spend a lot of time writing “how to” articles and describing the steps in a given process.  Screencasts are a great way to enhance these types of articles because they allow you to record the process in action.  There are many screencast tools available on the market, but until recently, they required a decent investment and the installation of more software on your computer.

Screenr solves this problem by offering a free, web-based service that enables you to record screencasts quickly and easily.  There is no need to set up an account on their site so you can begin recording your own screencast in less than a minute.  However, you need to comply with three simple requirements in order use their service.

1. You must have a Twitter account
2. The completed screencast needs to be 5 minutes or less
3. Viewers of your screencast must have Flash installed (nearly everyone does)

In the screencast below, I give a quick demonstration on how Screenr works.  As you will see, both video and audio are supported and the screencast is easily embedded within this article.

I’ve been using Screenr for over two months and it has worked flawlessly during that time.  Since they host the video and it is a free service, I suppose there is no guarantee it will work indefinitely.  That’s the only caveat I can offer.  My next step is to find an efficient way to back up these videos in the event the service ceases to exist.

Have you tried Screenr yet?  Let me know your thoughts.