WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool that is now used to design all types of web pages – direct sales pages, portfolio 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 WYSIWYG content editor for WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Is The Default WordPress WYSIWYG Editor Meeting All Of Your Page Design Needs?
Using the built-in WordPress WYSIWYG content editor to build or edit sophisticated page layouts can be quite challenging, especially for non-technical users.
(The built-in WordPress editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and media, but adding complex layouts can be quite challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the content shown below …
To create the above in a page would require typing something like this inside the default WordPress content editor …
Typically, this is not really an issue … until you choose to change an integral aspect of your layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or replace the button inside a box from bright red to orange. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with code inside the content editor.
The WordPress visual content editor is supposed to give non-technical users an easy-to-use WYSIWYG content editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to add more complex layouts, often what you see may not be what you get …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, users could even be better off working directly inside the html (text) editor tab instead of the visual editor when trying to create fancy layouts …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it difficult for WordPress users with no knowledge of HTML or CSS to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental challenge about using shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress visual editor can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long does it take to build a page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the ”back end” 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 users need to abstract what the content will look like when working with complex layouts. Other solutions require a number of 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 can interrupt the creative process, as you wait for your page to reload.
A number of WordPress web developers have tried to come up with a range of solutions to address this issue. Some of these alternative solutions range from stand alone plugins you can add to 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 layouts easier!)
Some solutions end up combining so many page-building 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 challenge of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. Creating, adding and editing sophisticated content elements on a web 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 become really frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your web content builder to function?
Now, visualize the following …
- You look at your content and if you spot something that needs to be changed, just click on the content and start changing it. Your content is instantly changed.
- You just drag and drop items around the page, and see them exactly as they will appear on the front end without having to mentally translate code.
- You have an idea for a specific piece of content you would like to create, so you simply start typing, and your page gets built as you go, without delays, with no tab switching, and no waiting for new web pages to resave and reload.
Would that not be the perfect way to create content for your web site? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your page?
(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 Plugin – The Ultimate Drag And Drop Front End Editor For WordPress
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive WordPress click-to-edit drag and drop content building plugin.
Thrive Content Builder is a new and incredibly easy way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress website.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor and a sidebar menu that lets you drag and drop design elements to your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editing option to your WordPress site)
Thrive Content And Page Builder 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.
We will examine each of the above and how these powerful features work seamlessly together to help you transform and improve your website and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin
With the Thrive Content Builder plugin, you can easily add content to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every element on your web page can be designed using simple ”click-to-edit” and “drag and drop” …
Once you have placed elements on your page, you can then easily edit these without going through multiple steps or opening more option windows …
The built-in Landing Pages editor also lets you build highly attractive landing pages and easily customize these …
Thrive Content and Page Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, working on content with Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder installed is so effortlessly simple, that the developers warn that once you start using it, you’ll never look back!
More info: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another excellent plugin for WordPress that we have recommended on this site.
Go here to read about the plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
Thrive Content Builder is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Edit And Create Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is simple and intuitive to use and lets you create and edit content in real-time.
What You See Is Really What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the content editor – typefaces, elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see on the front end of your site.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Stunning Page Layouts With Drag And 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 exciting and simple-to-use drag and drop content editor, but the plugin also includes a jaw-dropping collection of functional and attractive design elements that you can customizable and add to your layouts without using short codes, like pricing tables, feature grids, section dividers, responsive Google maps, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to wait for the updates to load frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you work or click through multiple steps to get what you need done.
(Add, edit and customize web page elements like testimonials, content toggle, text boxes, section dividers, Google Map embeds, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder offers many great features to WP users. Here are just a few of these:
- Built-In Content Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the regular text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold formatting, justified paragraphs, heading styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” table of multi-style elements available on your post or page screen for editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin includes a range of eye-catching and customizable elements that will help increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantee forms. In addition to being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Element Design: Add mobile-friendly columns, text boxes, dividers, e.g. which will adjust to display correctly on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Pages: The Event Manager feature lets you add animated page elements, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Landing Page Templates
Landing page sets are 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 web page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time designing pages for your web site
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No coding skills required
- Works with all WordPress themes
Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder not only lets you create beautiful-looking content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of professionally designed, conversion optimized page templates and fully customizable …
(Landing page sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are over 30 templates available, with more templates planned for future release. In addition to the existing templates, the developers plan to release new templates for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable Landing Page Template
Typically, to be able to have fully customizable landing page templates, you would need to either pay a web 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 attractive pre-designed web page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change and edit any element of your page templates …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Modify text in all headlines, bullet points, buttons, etc.
- Delete text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Replace the background image or background colours
- Edit the color of links, text, buttons, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Select your own images
- Modify content area size
- Change the order of page elements
- Translate pages into different languages
- Add custom content anywhere inside any of the pages
- Start with a blank web page and create your own page templates, or even build your own custom landing page templates library.
(Change or customize any aspect of your page templates)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Website Into A Powerful Marketing Machine
The Thrive plugin combo also includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully editable two-step opt-in forms and events to your web site …
(Add lead capture forms and animated objects to your pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process can help improve your conversion rates. Visitors click on an image or button, 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 your visitor clicks or hovers their mouse over a button or an image, or when someone reaches a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate attention-getting elements on your page, using various animation effects (e.g. zoom out, slide in from right to left, roll out, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your sales pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over your events, triggers and design.
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that customers have published about 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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“I’m blown away by the plugin. Keep up the incredible, WordPress changing work, guys! Dean Phillips”
Thrive Content Builder – 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 with the plugin installed.
You can add WordPress 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 built with Thrive Content Builder.
Product Support
Thrive Content and Page Builder comes with free updates, new landing pages and upcoming features. The plugin developers are constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive products are very well-supported, and users get unlimited updates, and 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, thirty day, full refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that just keeps 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 option lets you run the plugin on a single website. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This enables you to activate the plugin on all web sites that you personally own. Price includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency License – Use on all your web sites and on all your client websites. Price includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Cost = $247.00 per year.
Note: The cost of purchasing Thrive Content Builder can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
The Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin developers repeatedly 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 the time-saving benefits of ready-made page elements and beautiful, conversion-optimized template sets that help to speed up your content creation, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over your design process and the freedom to change anything and everything on your page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that allows you to work unhindered by overly complicated options.
For a demo video of the plugin in action, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive Content Builder website.
We Recommend …
If you want to edit something, simply click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you can see the change happen instantly. If you want to move something, simply drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no extra steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your business online and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content Builder delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more information, visit the plugin website:
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