WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging application to a tool that is now used to design all types of web pages – marketing pages, product showcase pages, business pages, etc.
Whatever you can think of, someone is most likely already building it using WordPress!
This article will help you discover the fastest way to build stunning content in WordPress sites.
Drag & Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Content Editor – Is There An Easier Way To Create Amazing-Looking Content In WordPress?
With all the rapid advancements that WordPress has undergone in recent years, many WordPress developers feel that the WordPress content editor is lagging behind other areas of developments being made to the software.
(The WordPress 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 create the above boxes with text and buttons, users would normally have to add shortcodes to the content for every single element they want to create …
Generally, this is not really an issue … unless you want to change your layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or change the button inside a box from red to another color. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code or html.
The WordPress editor is supposed to provide non-technical users with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG content editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to add complex page elements, often what you see on your screen may not be the same as what you are going to get when your page goes live …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, you could be better off working inside the text editor tab instead of the WordPress visual editor when trying to build fancy layouts …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it hard for users with no coding skills to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental problem with using shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress editor can be summarized as follows:
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 resemble the “front end” content when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above image, what you see in the content editor looks nothing like what you see in the front end. This means that you need to translate mentally what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require multiple steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing updates to see how your content is progressing, which can interrupt the creative process, as you wait for the updated content to load.
Many WordPress developers have tried to come up with various solutions aiming to address this issue. Some of these solutions range from WP plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to WP themes that come with built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make creating complex layouts easier!)
Some solutions include so many page design features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these alternative editors work, but they fail to address the fundamental challenge of using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. 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 to create or edit complex page content quickly, this can start to become very frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your page editor to function?
Now, visualize the following scenario …
- You look at your content and if you see something that needs fixing, just click on the content and start editing it. Your content is then instantly fixed.
- You just drag and drop elements around the page, and see them exactly as they will display on the front end without having to mentally translate shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for a specific item of content you’d like to add, so you just start typing, and your page gets built on the fly, with no delays, no switching of tab browsers, and no waiting for new content to refresh and reload.
Would this not be the perfect way to create content for your WordPress site? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex web pages ”on the fly” for your web content with no 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 Landing Pages And Content Builder – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content And Page Creator
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive WordPress click-to-edit drag and drop content builder.
Thrive Content Builder provides WordPress users with a new and exciting way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress web site.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor with an item menu that lets you drag and drop elements on your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editor to WordPress)
The Thrive Content And Page 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.
We will cover all of the above plugins and how these powerful features work together to help you transform and improve your site and create awesome marketing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder – WordPress Plugin
You can easily add content to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every element on your page can be configured, edited and moved around by dragging and dropping things around the page and then clicking to edit them …
Once you have positioned your elements on your page, you can then continue to edit these without going through additional steps or complicated settings windows …
You can also work inside stunning landing pages that can just as easily be edited or customized …
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing pages with Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages installed is so effortlessly simple, that the developers warn that once you start using it, you’ll never look back!
Go here to learn more: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another great plugin for WordPress that we have previously recommended on this site.
Go here to read about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Thrive Content Builder installs like every other plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Editing
Thrive Content Builder is simple to use and lets you create and edit content in real-time.
A Truly Visual Content Builder
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “back end” as you work within the content editor – fonts, visual elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what you get in the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Attractive Page Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease: Create any kind of layout you can imagine with drag and drop ease.
- Add Design Elements Without Using Short Codes: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get an amazing click-to-edit content editor, but the plugin also includes an impressive collection of professional design elements that you can use on your content layouts without using shortcodes, such as flat design elements, star ratings for review pages, dividers, countdown timers, etc.
- More Enjoyable Content Creation: Not having to constantly switch tabs as you tweak content and then wait for the updates to load frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build or edit your content or click through multiple steps to get what you want done.
(Thrive Content Builder lets you easily create, edit and customize web page elements like testimonial boxes, content toggle, feature grids, dividers, responsive videos, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder provides WordPress users many great features. Here are just a few:
- Regular Content Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have all of the built-in content editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold, centering text, headings, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements Menu: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” table of multi-style elements available on your post or page screen when editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help you increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantee forms. In addition to customization options, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, guarantee boxes, dividers, e.g. which will resize and display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation To Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you insert animated page content, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Templates
Thrive Landing Pages provides sets of 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 gives you conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money designing web pages for your website
- 100% conversion-optimized web page templates
- No web coding skills required
- Works with all WordPress themes
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages not only can be used to create beautiful-looking content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of professionally designed, web page templates that are conversion-optimized and fully customizable …
(Thrive Landing Pages provides sets of templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are over 30 templates available, with more templates being worked on. In addition to the existing templates, expect to see new templates in the future for email lead generation, sales pages, lesson pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable And Flexible Landing Page Template
Normally, to be able to have completely customizable landing page templates, you would need to either pay a web site developer 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 mess around with 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 creating conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you beautiful pre-designed web pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change and edit anything on the page templates …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you can:
- Edit text in any bullet point, headline, button, etc.
- Delete text, images or any other component of your landing page
- Change any background images or color
- Change the color of text, links, buttons, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Use your own images and graphics
- Edit content area size
- Change the order of elements on your pages
- Translate pages into a different language
- Add custom content inside any of the pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own templates, or even build your own custom landing pages library.
(Change and edit any aspect of your page)
Transform Your Site Into A Powerful Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox Plugin
The Thrive package also includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully configurable 2-step opt-in forms and animated objects to your web site …
(Add opt-in forms and animated objects to your WordPress site with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
2-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 …
(Capture more leads and subscribers with a two-step opt-in process)
Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make opt-in forms appear when when visitors click or hover 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 page, using a range of animation effects (e.g. fade out, slide in from bottom to top, rotate, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your 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 From Plugin Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have provided for the Thrive Content Builder plugin:
”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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“I’m blown away by the plugin. Keep up the incredible, WordPress changing work, guys! Dean Phillips”
Thrive Content Builder Plugin – Useful Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any theme in WordPress, not just with Thrive Landing Pages. You cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content on existing pages or posts that were not created with the plugin installed.
You can add WordPress shortcodes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will display correctly on on your site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content you build using Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin Support
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder comes with free updates, new landing pages and upcoming features. The Thrive team is constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive software is very well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades, and 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, complete money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product that just keeps getting better.
Software 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 license option lets you install the plugin on 1 web site only. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This allows you to set up the plugin on all sites that you own. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Licensing – Use on all your web sites and on all your client domains. It includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Cost = $247.00 per year.
Please Note: The price of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the product site and you may be shown 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 Content Builder and Landing Pages 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 web page elements and beautiful, conversion-optimized templates that help to make designing your pages faster, and on the other hand, you also have 100% control over your design process and the ability to edit anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that allows you to work unhindered by overly complicated steps.
For ”how-to” videos of the plugin in action, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive plugins website.
Download 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 instantly. If you want to move something, simply drag it and drop it into its new location. There are no extra steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your site and create awesome marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content Builder delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
To learn more, check out the plugin here:
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