3+ Free Online Video Maker Tools: How to Easily Enter the Video Age [2022 Update]

UPDATED INFORMATION: March 2022

You can use FlexClip as your free online video maker. Here is information about FlexClip pricing.

2020 Update: You need a free online video maker more than ever.

Since the publication of this post:

Video use has skyrocketed.

More free online video maker tools have become available.

An overwhelming majority of people, 80%, admit to watching a video to pass the time.

These videos are all lengths. Although people are more apt to watch a short-form video due to their busy lives, people go to YouTube to watch longer videos.

Entrepreneurs even make video business cards now.

The free online video maker tools you will learn about in this post are for both long and short videos.

Let’s dive in to the world of free online video maker tools.

I have officially entered the Video Age: I have discovered 3 user-friendly free online video maker tools.

Do you find entering the Video Age intimidating? Distressing, even?

Many do.

Content creators know that video is all the rage.

YouTube came along with recorded video,

Periscope enabled you to make videos on your phone.

Also, the popularity of Facebook Live is proving people want to get their information by watching videos.

For some of you, that’s a relief.

For others of you, that’s understandably terrifying.

Live Video Streaming sites such as Facebook Live have the added terror of being a “one-shot only” deal. I mean, it’s live. You get it right the first time or forget it. Start over. Time wasted.

Even if the live video comes out fine the first time, you are faced with issues you don’t have to think about with written blog posts.

For example, what will you wear in the video? Will you go for a casual look or wear formal, more professional attire?

What will you discuss? Suppose you get tongue-tied due to stage fright?

The traditional blog post writer may have to contend with Writer’s Block every now and again, but I haven’t heard too many concerns about stage fright.

Happily, these 3 free online video maker tools solve all these problems and still enable you to ride the wave of popularity that is video production.

This post will show you how to use free video makers, Lumen5, Animoto, and Instagram.

Make sure you stay until the end where you will learn about additional video makers added after publication.

Are you ready to learn about Lumen Video and other video tools?

Consider this quote from about the need for a variety of media on your site:

Blogging is primarily about the written word, but this does not mean that you cannot include images, videos, slideshows, and graphs. I actually encourage this. After all, everyone responds differently, and providing a mixed media experience will capture more attention. Source: Home Jobs by Mom

Why You Need Videos

• You need variety or your readers will get bored.
• Like it or not, videos are popular. People like to get their information by watching them. Today, 74% of all internet content is from videos*. You can embrace it or fight it.
• When people watch videos on your website, your bounce rate improves. This helps your SEO. Search engines will be pleased people aren’t leaving your site so quickly and your posts will rise in visibility.
• Google prefers posts with a variety of media.
• The new sites that keep popping up that allow Live Video Streaming show that videos are increasing in popularity, not going away.
• Statistics show that posts with videos get shared more, especially on Twitter.
• Are you a marketer? Statistics show 64% of website visitors are more likely to buy from you if you have a video on your site.

Lumen5 Review

Over 400,000 people use Lumen5 for their free online video maker. 

Lumen5 is my go-to tool for free video creation. After using Lumen5, you won’t want or need a Lumen5 alternative. 

Why You Need Lumen5

• Are you a non-techy sort? Does the technical aspect of blogging intimidate you? No need. You don’t need to know any tech to use this service.
• Using Lumen5 is like one-stop-shopping. Your information, your graphics, your music, are all included. Lumen5 does all the technical stuff. You get to have fun making a few creative choices while Lumen5 does the rest. Lumen5 uses Smart Templates, so I let Lumen5 do most of the thinking for me. 2020 Update: Use this list of royalty-free music sources as your resource for selecting music to accompany your video. 
• Lumen video is easy.
• Always in a rush? Are you so busy time has a way of shrinking for you? Without any instruction on Lumen5, I made my first video in seconds! Lumen5 is quick to use.
• Lumen5 allows you to make professional-looking video-style presentations.
• When you are done composing your blog post, you should promote it. Being able to promote on social media is one of the advantages of using social media sites. Making a video with your content and uploading it to social media sites is a way of promoting your post. Remember to add the link to the article along with the video.

Lumen5 Video Editor Misconceptions

There is confusion over how to spell Lumen5. 

People mix up Lumen 5, Lumen5, and even wrongly spell the tool Lumin 5 and Lumen Five.

The correct spelling of the Lumen video maker is Lumen5.

Lumen5 UPDATES

Update March 2021

You will find new themes at Lumen5 in addition to voice over recording.

Lumen5 now educates video makers about video marketing. 

The company partnered with GenM to teach people how to make quality videos and the principles of video marketing. The video making course is free. 

In addition, the company added templates for all occasions. If you need a template, type the purpose into the search bar. The AI will recommend a template. 

• Lumen5 increased its number of media choices by 10X! This includes video images as well as still images.
• Lumen5 partners with Shutterstock to bring you free images. 
• Lumen5 also partners with the Getty Museum to bring you current event media in the event you write about the news.
• You can upload your own videos quickly.
• The information gets even better: (At the time of this writing,) Lumen5 is still free.

Lumen5 now has square videos, just perfect for your Instagram posts.

Vertical videos designed for Instagram’s IGTV are also available with Lumen5’s premium plan.

According to the Lumen5 team, “We use natural language processing to understand the content of your article. Use our intelligent storyboarding tools to capture the essence of your story. Search and select from our library with millions of copyright-free assets.”

November 2020 Update

Lumen5 now has a voiceover recording feature. In other words, you can record your voice dictating the video text.

This is helpful for this reason:

People watch videos but also want to be able to hear the narration and not just the music that accompanies Lumen5. Voice-over narration gives viewers this option.

Also, hearing the voice of the marketer could instill trust in the video watcher, trust that leads to a purchase or email signup.

October 2020 Update 1

Many graphic design companies make your free videos. For instance, you could use PosterMyWall as a Lumen5 alternative and a free online video maker. 

October 2020 Update 2

 

September 2020 Update

Exciting news! 

Lumen5 now has voice recordings. 

August 2020

Lumen5’s “Fetching” command failed. When the video wouldn’t “fetch,” I panicked. How could I update my post and insert a video?

Did it have to be a Lumen5 video?

Yes!

Lumen5 is quick and easy. I’m always rushing, so there was not a second choice.

No problem! I chose another one of Lumen5’s templates, and quickly changed the text to apply to my article. 

Would you like to see the video? 

Look:

Quick, easy, informative, and because of the music, entertaining. This makes a nice teaser to get people to want to read my MozBar tutorial.

It’s true: Content marketing is easier with a video. 

UPDATE:

I contacted the support staff at Lumen5. They advised refreshing my browser. 

On January 1, 2021, the problem occurred again. Like the first time, I contacted the Lumen5 support staff who responded immediately even on New Year’s Day, a holiday. They said I didn’t let the site finish loading. 

Now you have two solutions if you get the “fetching” error message. I still use Lumen5 as my go-to video editor and maintain you don’t need a Lumen5 alternative. 

May 2020

During the Coronavirus, video marketing took on even greater importance since people can’t see each other due to social distancing.

In fact, Forbes explained that during the Coronavirus lockdown, 80% of video watching increased. 

Did you watch videos while you sheltered in place? I know I did. 

Forbes went on to predict that 82% of information will be consumed through videos by 2022.

These statistics mean it’s even more paramount that you use Lumen5 and these Lumen5 alternatives.

Update March 2021: You can use Rocketium as a Lumen5 alternative. Note: I have not vetted Rocketium.

April 2020

Lumen Video introduced eight new themes. 

According to the company, “Our eight new themes, classic, sleek, smart, refined, elegant, fresh, focus, and lively, have been inspired by our favorite best-in-class publications.” 

Here is my latest Lumen5 video:

August 2019

In August 2019, Lumen5 Introduced Instagram Story Videos. They create the video and send it to you in pieces under 15 seconds so you can post the pieces of the video in order to your Instagram Story.

Testimonials:

I have to give Kathryn Maclean a shout out for turning me on to Lumen5.

(By the end of this post, she will have turned us all on to Lumen5.)

Consider her comments on my post about visual blogging:

Hi Janice,
Video blogging can be very easy. I have discovered a service called Lumen5 that takes parts of your article and makes a video of it automatically. I really like it and have added it to promote my articles so far on my Facebook pages. It’s also free at the moment.

The Buffer Blog also recommends Lumen5 as one of their top 19 tools which will speed up video creation.

Lumen5 Tutorial

1. Go to https://lumen5.com/auth/login/?next=/app/ and make an account.
2. Click “Create video.”
3. Enter a link to your content. Lumen5 will make a relevant video.
4. If you don’t like the graphics Lumen5 uses in the video, you can upload your own photos. Click “Continue.”
5. Click “Music” to add music.
6. Preview your video.
7. If you’re happy, click “publish.”
8. The company tells you to wait 10 minutes for your video. I waited for one minute. When I received it, I shared it on Facebook, Twitter, and uploaded it to YouTube.
9. Then, I took the YouTube link and embedded it at the start of the post so people can have a video introduction when I received word the video was ready.

Notice what happens after you make an account. Lumen5 has made videos of my blog posts without my asking. All I have to do is select them and put them in my articles.

Where to find the video when you’re done? They appear in my video folder on my computer’s C Drive.

Lumen5 is free, fast, and fun!

Example 1:

Here was my first experience making a Lumen5 video:

I did not alter any of the graphics. Lumen5 chose them all for me. They fit the content! I was good to go!

Example 2:

In this example, I brought in my own graphic for Slide #1. The rest were chosen by Lumen5.

Did you watch both? Did you notice the music was the same?

You have many choices for music. However, I favor their “funky: happy” selection so I used it both times. Choose music that fits the content of your post or personality, whatever you consider appropriate.

Lumen5 vs Animoto

Lumen5 makes videos you can put in your posts, across channels on social media sites, and the most recent feature puts videos in Instagram Stories. 

Also, Lumen5 has an app.

Therefore, I feel the Lumen5 video editor is more versatile. 

Other Free Online Video Maker Tools

Lumen5 Alternatives

Spark Video

Adobe Spark also has a free online intro maker.

I enjoy using Spark Video. Although this free online video maker used to have templates that I miss, using Spark video is as easy as moving slides around. 

Spark Video gives you a title slide, a credits slide, and slides in between in which you can place your images, other videos, and text. 

If you want to pay for a premium account, you can remove the watermark.

Would you like to see a Spark Video I made?

Animoto

Animoto is free, but your video will appear with a watermark unless you opt for a premium plan.

1. Go to https://animoto.com/
2. Make an account. I signed in with my Facebook information.
3. Indicate your purpose in making a video. I chose marketing.
4. Animoto gave me tips. For example, the tool explained that a square video will do better as far as receiving likes and shares.
5. It showed me an example and asked me to choose a storyboard. Since I was using a “marketing” video, I decided to make a video advertising my blog or my blog critique services. 
6. I dragged relevant photos to the place indicated. Make sure you drag and drop your logo as well.
7. I chose a style with colors that matched my blog. A preview of how the video would look came up. I was pleased, so I selected it.
8. To edit the words in the storyboard, click the “T” for Text.
9. You can change the colors and move the text box.
10. I was concerned the text couldn’t be read over the colors in the picture, so I turned on “Enhanced Legibility.” When I did, a background appeared behind my text making it easier to read.
11. You can make a voice recording. I felt the music drowned me out, so I didn’t. This is helpful, though, in providing more information.
12. You have a choice of filters. I liked the “denim” default, so I didn’t change the filter.
13. I changed the song to the only New Age selection.

Would you like to see my video? Press play.

14. An HTML code appeared when I wanted to publish my video. I went into “Text” mode and pasted the code.

15. You can also share your videos on your social media. I like to share videos I make on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

If you do wish to pay for a premium plan, Animoto’s pricing plans start at $8.00 per month.

Instagram Videos

If you’re going to appeal to millennials, you need to put your videos where they go. Your millennial audience is on Instagram.

How to make an Instagram video:

You have options when it comes to Instagram videos:

• You can make a live video you can share with people
• You can make a video you can post to your story or
• You can make a video you can send to individual contacts and not post for others to see.

The live video notifies people and creates a sense of urgency since time will run out. You can’t redo it. The advantage is you can see how many people are watching your video.

Other recorded videos can be rerecorded if you make a mistake before posting.

How to save a video to your story:

By saving a video to your story, it will sit on top of your followers’ feed for 24 hours.

1. Open your Instagram app on your mobile device.
2. Swipe right. This will activate the camera.
3. Hold the big white button to record a video. Let go of the button when you’re done with the video.
4. Tap the video when you’re done.
5. Click the Aa for the font. You can type and change the colors.
6. Swipe either right or left for filters.
7. Swipe up for emojis. You can change the size.
8. Tilt anything you’ve added by pinching the element.
9. If you wish to save your video, click “Save” at the bottom of the screen.
10. Choose who you wish to share with. If you want your video at the top of your Instagram feed, click “Your Story.” Everyone will be able to see. If you want to share with individuals, click “Next” and choose those individuals from your contacts.

How to save a video to your feed: 

The advantage is your video won’t vanish in 24 hours. The disadvantage is your followers will have to scroll down to see it:

Step 1: Go to your photos on your phone or wherever you save videos. You can select one or even multiple videos to post to Instagram. Click “Next.”

Step 2: Choose a filter. You have 24 choices. This step is optional. Click “Next.”

Step 3: Write a caption. Instagram’s difference from many social media sites is you can type as many hashtags as you want without repercussion. Like-minded Instagrammers find your content by your hashtags.

Step 4: Share.

Note: You can have the best of both worlds by posting your video to your stories and your feed.

Example 1: 

Did you notice the emojis and the text showing my blog link?

Example 2:

Look at the caption I put on Instagram with my video:

Are you a #Blogger? Find #Bloggers, get quality #Links, and increase #BlogTraffic https://wp.me/p6x6vQ-59X

My caption contains many hashtags that will enable like-minded Instagrammers to find my video. If they copy the link in my caption and paste it in their browser URL, they can go to my blog post, and I will receive traffic.

Many bloggers give Instagrammers a different Call to Action. They tell them to go to their profile where they will find a live link to their site and click it.

UPDATE: Instagram is testing a video response to IGTV (Instagram Television).

Instasize Video

Instasize is a popular graphic design tool you can use to make Instasize videos.

I was originally attracted to Instasize due to its square shape which is just perfect for your Instagram feed. 

At the time, Instasize charged for the square shape. Now I found both Lumen5 and Instasize Video offer the Instagram-ready square video size for free. 

Here is more information about the Instasize graphic design tool.

June 2020 Update:

Canva Video

Modifying this Canva template was easy and quick. This was only my first attempt using Canva video, so it will be even easier and quicker next time. 

All I did was basically type the outline to my post about blog commenting sites. Then, I matched videos and images. I chose royalty-free music. Easy!

Wrapping Up: Free Online Video Maker Tools

In closing, videos are valuable for both you and your audience. Your audience gets your information in a different format than usual, you help people who learn by watching instead of reading, and since people stay longer on your blog, your bounce rate improves.

This, of course, helps your SEO and could improve your visibility at search engines. This results in more organic traffic for you.

It took me mere minutes to make these videos. Sending them to my social media sites also no time at all as well. I felt great as the number of views started to climb at YouTube.

I felt even better knowing I was riding the video wave and remaining cutting edge. Video production as a way of disseminating information has become mainstream.

I hope you enjoyed these Lumen5 free tips and learned about additional free online video maker tools. 

Readers, please share, so other bloggers know how they can effortlessly produce videos and offer variety instead of only publishing the traditional, written blog post.

Have you used Lumen5, Animoto, or Instagram to make videos? What are your experiences? Would you recommend them? If not, would you recommend another video tool?

Wait are you waiting for? Go make your videos.

Have fun letting these tools make your videos and engage your readers.

Are you convinced?

Then, please share so other bloggers who know they need to enter the video production world but are wary know how easy video production can be with these tools.

I look forward to your replies about your favorite free online video maker tools in the comments section.

Can you recommend a Lumen5 alternative or an Animoto alternative?

This post reviewed 3 free tools. If you’d like more free blogging tools, click here to get your own downloadable PDF of my free blogging tools list.

Related Reading

14 Best Mostly-Free Video Maker Tools 

Source

Lumen5*

Updates

April 2021

This Lumen5 video received over 1,000 views:

Apparently, there is great interest in the topic of the video, how to get out of Facebook Jail. 

March 2021

This Lumen5 video uses one of Lumen5’s newest themes:

Here is my latest Lumen5 video:

March 2021 Lumen5 example

October 2020 Lumen5 Example

PosterMyWall video:

PosterMyWall makes short videos that resemble ads. As you can see, PosterMyWall takes graphic animation to a new level. Here is a PosterMyWall tutorial.

Lumen5 2019 Update

Lumen5 has all-purpose templates. Do you notice the Halloween templates?

Lumen5 Alternative Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lumen5 free?

Yes! I’ve been using Lumen5 for years without paying anything.

Is Lumen5 good?

Lumen5 is my go-tool when I need a free online video maker. The service is especially helpful when I’m rushing since Lumen5 makes my video so quickly by pulling from my post’s RSS feed. I post to YouTube and then embed the code in my blog post.