WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool that is now being used to design all types of web pages – direct sales pages, portfolio pages, business pages, etc.
Whatever you can imagine, someone is most likely already building it using WordPress!
In this article you will discover the simplest way to build stunning content in WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Content Editor – Is There An Easier Tool For Designing Pages In WordPress?
With so many developments that WordPress has undergone in recent years, many WordPress users and developers believe that the WordPress content editor is now lagging behind all other improvements made to the software.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding more complex layouts can be quite challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the layout shown below …
To create the above in your content would require inserting something that looks like this inside the default WordPress visual content editor …
Normally, this is not an issue … unless you decide to change something in the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or change the button inside box 3 from red to purple. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with code inside the content editor.
The WordPress visual content editor is supposed to provide non-technical users with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to edit more complex page elements, what you see may not be what you are going to get when the content gets published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, some people argue that users would probably be better off working with the html source itself instead of the WYSIWYG editor when trying to build complex page elements …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it difficult for WordPress users without knowledge of HTML or CSS to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental problem with using shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress visual editor can be summarized by asking 2 questions:
1) Speed – How long will it take to create a web page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the editor match 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 when working in the back end doesn’t look anything like what you see in the front end. This means that users have to translate mentally what the content will look like when working with complex layouts. Other solutions require taking a number of steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching tabs and performing updates to see how your content is coming along, which then affects how quickly you can create your content, as you wait for the content to load.
A number of WordPress web developers have tried to come up with a range of solutions with the objective of making the visual editor more intuitive. Some of these range from stand alone WordPress plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that offer built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make creating complex content easier!)
Some solutions combine so many complex page design features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these editors work, but they don’t really address the fundamental issue of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. Creating, adding and editing 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 content to look “just right” quickly, this can become really frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your pages?
Now, visualize the following scenario …
- You spot something in your content that needs correction so you, simply click on the content and start writing. Your content has been instantly edited.
- You just drag and drop items on the page, and see them exactly as they will display on the front end without having to mentally visualize any HTML or shortcodes.
- You have an idea for some content you would like to add, so you immediately begin typing, and your page gets built on the fly, with no delays, no tab switching, and without having to wait for new pages to resave and reload.
Would that not be the perfect way to build content for your site? A true WYSIWYG editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex pages in real-time for your web content with no technical skills required!)
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 And Landing Pages
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive WordPress click-to-edit drag and drop content builder.
Thrive Content Builder is a new and exciting way to speed up the process of adding amazing content to your WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor with an item menu that lets you select, then drag and drop design elements to your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new visual content editing option to WordPress)
The Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder plugin is actually a combination of the Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages plugins merged into one, plus an additional plugin feature called Thrive Lightbox.
Let’s take an in-depth a look at each of the above and how all of this functionality works seamlessly together to help you easily transform and improve your web presence and create awesome marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder For WordPress
You can easily build complex web page design layouts using drag and drop elements …
Every aspect of your web page can be configured by ”clicking-to-edit” and “dragging and dropping” things around the page …
Once you have positioned your elements on a page, you can then continue to customize these without going through multiple steps or complicated configuration screens …
You can also work inside highly attractive landing pages and easily edit these …
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 Landing Pages and Content Builder installed is so amazingly simple, that the developers warn that once you start using it, you’ll never look back!
To learn more about this plugin go here: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another great plugin that we have previously recommended on this site.
Go here to read about this plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up your page design and content creation process:
Installation Is Easy
Thrive Content Builder installs just like any plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user login and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Editing
Thrive Content Builder is is not only simple and intuitive to use, it also lets you add content to your pages in real-time.
What You See Is Truly What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the editor – fonts, visual elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what you get on the front end of your site.
Additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Add Eye-Catching Page Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any type of layout you can imagine with drag-and-drop ease.
- Add Customizable Elements Without Using Shortcodes: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get a visually exciting drag and drop WordPress content editor, but the plugin also includes a very decent collection of customizable design elements that you can customizable and add to your layouts without using short codes, like tabbed content, gradient boxes, dividers, responsive video embeds, etc.
- More Enjoyable Content Creation: Not having to wait for the content to reload frees up your attention and allows you to build the content your business needs, quickly and without having to edit code or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Create, edit and customize page elements like testimonial boxes, content toggle, borderless content, dividers, credit card icons, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder offers site owners many powerful features. Below we have listed just some:
- Built-In Content Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the regular content editing options that you are used to (e.g. underlines, paragraph centering, heading styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements Menu: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” list of elements available on your post or page screen for creating and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with a range of eye-catching and customizable elements that will help you increase your conversions, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantees. In addition to being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Design: Add responsive elements like columns, guarantee boxes, content section dividers, e.g. which will adjust to display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation To Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you add animated buttons, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Sets
Landing page sets are web page templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language to take your visitors from initial signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages plugin lets you add conversion-optimized pages to your website)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time creating and customizing landing pages
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No web coding skills required
- Works with all themes
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder not only can be used to create beautiful content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of beautifully designed, conversion optimized 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 available templates, expect to see new templates in the future for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable Landing Page Template Sets
Typically, to be able to fully customize a landing page template, you would need to either pay a web site designer to do the work, or learn web coding languages like HTML and CSS and figure out how to edit the page code 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 complex 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 stunning pre-designed web pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change or edit anything on your page template …
With the landing page template sets included with this plugin, you can:
- Edit text in all headlines, buttons, bullet points, etc.
- Delete text, images or any other element of your landing page
- Replace all background images or background colour
- Edit the color of buttons, links, text, etc.
- Use your own fonts
- Use your own images
- Modify the size of the content area
- Change the order of elements on your page
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add any kind of custom content anywhere inside your pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own page templates, or even build your own library of custom landing page templates.
(Change and edit any element of the page template)
Transform Your Web Site Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive package includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully editable 2-step opt-in forms and events to your web site …
(Add opt-in forms and animation to your pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process can increase your conversion rates. Visitors click on a button or image, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(When visitors click on the button, they are presented with an opt-in form)
Thrive Lightbox Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make an opt-in form appear when when visitors click or hover their mouse over a button or an image, or when someone scrolls down to a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate attention-getting elements on your web pages, using various effects (e.g. zoom in from the page center, slide in from top to bottom, rotate, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your sales pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
A lightbox and event is created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over the events, triggers and design.
Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials that customers have provided for Thrive Content Builder:
”You guys are simply awesome I am loving everything you are doing at the moment. Keep up the great work you really are making such a big difference in this field. Jule Fuller”
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”Great stuff! I am really impressed by all the new additions. You guys have shown a true commitment to making these themes and the Content Builder awesome. Michael Johnson”
Plugin 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 short codes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will display correctly on on your site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content you build with Thrive Content Builder.
Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages provides free updates, new landing pages and upcoming features. The plugin developers are constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive software is well-supported, and users get unlimited software updates, and one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 100% money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users that will just keep getting better.
Plugin Cost
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 License – This lets you configure the plugin on a single web site. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This edition lets you activate the plugin on unlimited sites that you personally own. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Edition – This allows you to install the plugin on all of your own websites and any client websites. Pricing includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Please Note: Pricing for Thrive Content Builder depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was correct when this content was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the product author 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 Information
The developers of the Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin emphatically assert 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 page elements and 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 and customize anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, that allows you to see exactly how the content you are working on will look after publishing.
For a demo video of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the plugin website.
Get The Plugin …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, do it, and you’ll see the change happen instantly. If you want to move something, you drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no unnecessary steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your site and create awesome sales pages and content, Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more information, visit the plugin website here:
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