WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool into a tool that is now being used to design all types of web pages – landing pages, product showcase pages, business pages, etc.
Whatever you can imagine, someone is most likely already building it with WordPress!
In this article you will discover how to create stunning content faster with drag & drop ease in WordPress web sites.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Is The Default WordPress Visual Content Editor Still Meeting All Of Your Web Design Needs?
With so many developments that the WordPress platform has gone through in recent years, many WordPress developers and users believe that the WordPress content editor is lagging behind other areas of improvements made to the software.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and media, but adding more complex content elements can be challenging!)
For example, if you look at the image below …
To add the above to your content would require typing something like this into the default WordPress visual editor …
Typically, this is not really an issue … unless you have to edit some part of your layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or replace the button in a box from red to another color. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with code inside the editor.
The WordPress visual editor is supposed to be an easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor, but as you can see, if you are creating with more complex layouts, what you see in the WordPress content editor may not be what you are going to get when the content is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some instances, you would probably be better off working with the source html itself instead of the WordPress visual editor when trying to add something other than simple layouts …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it difficult for WordPress users without knowledge of HTML or CSS to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental issue about having to use HTML and shortcodes to create content in WordPress can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long will it take to create a page using this editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the editor resemble the content in the “front end” when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above screenshot, what you see in the back end does not look even remotely similar to what you see in the front end. This means that users have to translate mentally what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require several steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly going back and forth between tabs and performing updates to see how your content is coming along, which then impacts how fast you can create your content, as you wait for the updates to refresh.
A number of WordPress developers have tried to come up with different solutions aiming to address this issue. Some of these alternative solutions range from standalone plugins you can add to your site that add new functionality to the editor, to WordPress themes that provide built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make content creation easier!)
Some solutions require so many page-building features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these alternative editors work fine, but they don’t really seem to address the fundamental issue of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. Creating and adding non-linear content on a page becomes overly complicated, involves multiple steps and doesn’t match what users expect to see on the “front end.”
If you want your page content to look ”perfect” quickly, this can become very frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your web content editor to work?
Now that you’ve asked this question, visualize the following …
- You look at your content and if you spot something that needs to be corrected, just click on the content and start editing it. Your content is then instantly changed.
- You just drag and drop elements on the page, and the page looks exactly as it will appear on the front end without having to mentally translate any shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for an item of content that you would like to create, so you immediately begin typing, and your page gets built as you go, without delays, with no switching tabs, and no waiting for new content to reload.
Would that not be the perfect way to build content for your WordPress web site? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the posts and pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex web pages quickly for your web content without technical constraints!)
If you are ready to change the way you create content in WordPress site, then here is a plugin that you may want to consider using …
Thrive Content Builder – Create Stunning Content Faster With Drag & Drop Ease In WordPress Websites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a revolutionary WordPress plugin that lets website owners quickly add amazing content to their posts and pages with true click-to-edit and drag and drop simplicity.
Thrive Content Builder provides you with a new and incredibly easy way to speed up the process of adding amazing content to your WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor and an item menu that lets you select, then drag and drop design elements on your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editor to your WordPress site)
The Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder plugin is actually a combination of the Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages plugins combined into one, plus an additional plugin feature called Thrive Lightbox.
Let’s take an in-depth a look at all of the above and how all of this exciting functionality works seamlessly together to help you transform and improve your web site and create amazing marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder For WordPress
You can easily add complex design layouts to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every element of your page can be configured, changed and moved around with “drag and drop” and “click-to-edit” ease …
Once elements have been positioned on the page, you can continue to further edit them without going through additional steps or opening extra option windows …
The built-in Landing Pages editor also lets you build highly attractive landing pages that can also be easily customized …
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing pages and working on content with Thrive Content Builder installed is so amazingly simple, that the developers guarantee that you will never look back once you start using it
For more details about this plugin go here: Thrive Content Builder
The integrated Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages plugin was created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another fantastic plugin for WordPress that we have reviewed on this site.
See this page to read about this plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Installation Is Easy, Simple & Fast
Thrive Content Builder is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your administrator account and activate.
Edit & Add Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is is not only simple to use, it also lets you edit content in real-time.
A Truly Visual Editor
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the editor – typefaces, elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see on the front end of your site.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Create Attractive Web Page Layouts With Drag And Drop Ease: Create any kind of layout you can imagine with drag-and-drop ease.
- Design Elements Included: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get a visually exciting drag and drop WordPress content builder, but the plugin also includes a collection of professional web design elements that you can customizable and insert into your layouts without using short codes, like content toggle, feature grids, page section dividers, responsive Google maps, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to wait for the new content to reload frees up your attention and allows you to build the pages your business needs, quickly and without having to edit code or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Add, edit and customize web page elements like testimonials, flat design elements, table of contents builder, section dividers, responsive Google maps, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder provides many features to website owners. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Regular Content Editor Functionality Is Preserved: You have access to all of the built-in WordPress editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold, paragraph centering, headings, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Multi-Style Elements Menu: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” list of elements to your post or page screen when creating and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin includes various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help you increase your conversions, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantees. In addition to customization options, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Web Element Design: Add mobile-friendly columns, guarantee boxes, dividers, e.g. which will display correctly on different screens.
- Add Animation Events To Pages: Thrive Content Builder’s Event Manager feature lets you add animated buttons, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Template Sets
Landing page template sets are web templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language to take your visitors from signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages lets you easily add conversion-optimized web pages to your website)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money creating attractive-looking landing pages for your WordPress web site
- 100% conversion-optimized page templates
- No coding skills needed
- Works with any theme
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder not only lets you create beautiful content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of professionally designed, conversion optimized landing page templates and fully customizable …
(Thrive Landing Pages provides sets of templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are 30+ templates available, with more templates being worked on. In addition to the templates shown above, the developers plan to release new page templates for email lead generation, sales pages, lesson pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable Landing Page Template
Normally, in order to have completely customizable landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web designer to do the work, or learn web coding languages like HTML and CSS and figure out what to do yourself.
As Shane Melaugh, co-founder of Thrive Themes says …
“There are many ways to get a pre-designed page published quickly, but the problem comes with customization. Total design freedom requires either hiring web developers to do the work for you, or learn how to do it yourself, which involves learning how to code or use overly complicated editors. Customizable usually means complicated, expensive or time-consuming. So, you can either have something that is fast and easy to set up, or something that is customizable and flexible. But you couldn’t have both … until now! With Thrive Landing Pages you get the best of both worlds for building conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you attractive pre-built page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change and customize any aspect of your page templates …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Edit text in all buttons, bullet points, headlines, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Replace all background images or background colour
- Edit the color of links, text, buttons, etc.
- Use your own fonts
- Use your own images
- Change content area size
- Rearrange the order of web page elements
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add custom content in your pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own page templates, or even build a custom landing page templates library.
(Change and customize anything on your page)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Site Into A Powerful Marketing Machine
The Thrive package also includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully configurable 2-step opt-in forms and events to your website …
(Add opt-in forms and animated elements to your web pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Thrive Lighbox 2-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-step opt-in process helps improve your conversion rates. Visitors click on an image or button, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(When visitors click on the button, they are presented with an opt-in form)
Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make an opt-in form appear when your visitor clicks or hovers their mouse over a button or graphic elements, or when someone reaches a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate images on your web pages, using a range of effects (e.g. zoom out, slide in from bottom to top, roll out, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your web pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over your events, triggers and design.
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials that customers have provided for the Thrive Content Builder plugin:
“I have had nothing but the best experience imaginable with this tool since I purchased it. This is by far one of, if not the best plug-in I have purchase to date and it has definitely made working with WordPress a whole new experience. Jim Bond”
***
“I’m blown away by the plugin. Keep up the incredible, WordPress changing work, guys! Dean Phillips”
Useful Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any WordPress theme, not just with the Thrive Landing Pages plugin. You cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content that was not created using the plugin.
You can add WordPress shortcodes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will be displayed correctly when published.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built using Thrive Content Builder.
Plugin Support
Thrive Content and Page Builder provides free updates, new landing templates and upcoming features. The Thrive team is constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive plugins are really well-supported, and users get unlimited software updates, and 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, 100% refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep getting better.
Product Price
At the time of writing, the pricing information shown below includes all three components described above (Thrive Content Builder, Thrive Landing Pages & Thrive Lightbox):
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to install the plugin on 1 website only. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This lets you configure the plugin on unlimited domains that you personally own. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency Edition – This enables you to set up the plugin on all of your own sites and all client web sites. Pricing includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Cost = $247.00 per year.
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the Thrive Content Builder software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
The developers of the Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin repeatedly maintain that the plugin’s architecture gives you the “best of both worlds,” and help bring back the “joy of creating content.”
On the one hand, you have time-saving features like ready-made web page elements and beautiful, conversion-optimized templates that help speed up your content creation, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over your design process and the freedom to edit anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, which allows you to get things done without having to go through multiple steps.
For a demo video of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive website.
Get The Plugin …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you will see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, you drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no complicated steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more information, check out the plugin here:
***