WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging application to a tool that is now being used to design all types of pages – direct sales pages, product showcase pages, local business pages, etc.
Whatever you can imagine, someone is most likely already building it using WordPress!
In this article you will discover the most straight-forward way to build stunning content and beautiful page layouts in WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Does The WordPress Visual Editor Meet All Of Your Content Creation Needs?
With all the rapid developments that the WordPress platform has undergone in recent years, many WordPress users and developers believe that using the default WordPress WYSIWYG content editor to build or edit more complex content elements can be challenging.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional content, 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 boxes with text and buttons, users would normally need to insert short codes into the content for every single page element they would like to create …
Normally, this is not an issue … until you want to reconfigure the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or replace the background colour in a box from bright red to light blue. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress editor is supposed to provide 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 create more complex content elements, what you see in the visual editor may not be the same as what you are going to get when your content gets published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, some people argue that users would probably be better off working inside the WordPress html (text) editor tab instead of the WordPress WYSIWYG editor when trying to add fancy page elements …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it hard for non-technical users to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental problem about having to use shortcodes and HTML to create content with WordPress 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 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 doesn’t look anything like what you see in the front end. This means that users need to mentally translate what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require taking several steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly going back and forth between tabs and performing tweaks and updates to see how your content is progressing, 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 various solutions aiming to address this issue. Some of these solutions range from stand alone plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to WP themes that include 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 content editors …
Many of these solutions work fine, but they don’t really seem to address the fundamental problem with using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Creating, adding and editing sophisticated content elements 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 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 …
- You look at your content and if you see something that needs fixing, simply click on the content and start typing. Your content has been instantly changed.
- You can just drag and drop elements on the page, and see them exactly as they will display on the front end without having to mentally abstract from shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for some content that you would like to create, so you just start typing, and you build your page on the fly, without delays, with no switching of tab browsers, and no waiting for new web content to refresh.
Would this not be the perfect way to create content for your WordPress website? A true visual editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the page?
(Imagine being able to create complex web pages quickly 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 Plugin – The Ultimate Click-To-Edit Front End Visual Editor For WordPress Websites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive WordPress click-to-edit drag-and-drop content builder plugin.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin is a new and incredibly easy way to speed up the process of adding content to your WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor and a sidebar menu that lets you select, then drag and drop elements to your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new editor to your WordPress site)
The 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 take a look at all of the above and how these 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 – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag & Drop Content Builder Plugin
With Thrive Content Builder easily add content to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every aspect of your web page can be built and edited using ”click-to-edit” and “drag and drop” …
Once elements have been added to a page, you can continue to further customize or edit these without having to go through additional steps or switching screens …
You can also create highly attractive landing pages that can also be easily edited …
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing web pages and working on content with the plugin installed is so effortlessly simple, that the developers warn that once you start using it, it will ruin the experience of using all other content editors forever, and you will never look back!
For more details, visit the plugin site 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 written about on this site.
To learn more about this plugin, see this page:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder Plugin
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up your page design and content creation process:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In No Time.
Thrive Content Builder installs just like every other WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Edit Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is is not only really simple to use, it also lets you build and add content to your web pages in real-time.
What You See Is Exactly What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the editor – fonts, elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see in the front end of your site.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Stunning Layouts With Drag And Drop Ease: Create any type of layout you can imagine with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- Design Elements Included: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get a visually exciting click-to-edit WordPress content editor, but the plugin also includes a very decent collection of design elements that you can add to your content layouts without using short codes, like columns, borderless content, section dividers, responsive maps, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to constantly switch tabs as you tweak your content and then wait for the new content to load frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build content or click through multiple steps to get what you need done.
(Insert, edit and customize page elements like testimonials, pricing tables, feature grids, section dividers, Google Map embeds, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder provides many features to website owners. Here are just a few:
- Regular Content Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the regular content editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold formatting, paragraph formatting, headings and font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements Menu: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” list of multi-style elements available on your post or page screen for creating and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin includes a range of eye-catching and customizable elements that will help you increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantees. In addition to customization options, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Responsive Design: Add mobile-friendly elements like column layouts, guarantee boxes, content section dividers, e.g. which will resize and display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events 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 Plugin – Landing Page Sets
Landing page template sets are templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language to take your visitors all the way from signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages provides you with conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Everything is hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money building and customizing landing pages
- 100% conversion-optimized page templates
- No web coding skills required
- Works with any WordPress theme
Thrive Landing Pages and Content 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, landing page templates that are conversion-optimized and fully customizable …
(Landing page template sets 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 that are currently available, the developers plan to release new web page templates 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 landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web developer to do the work, or learn how to code web pages 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 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 building conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you stunning pre-designed pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change and customize any element of your page template …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Edit text in any button, bullet point, headline, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of your landing page
- Replace any background images and edit color
- Edit the color of buttons, links, text, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Use your own images and graphics
- Modify content area size
- Rearrange the order of web page elements
- Translate pages into different languages
- Add any type of custom content in your pages
- Start with a blank web page and create your own templates, or even build a library of custom landing pages.
(Change or edit any element of your page)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Site Into A Marketing Machine
The Thrive plugin combo also includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully editable two-step opt-in forms and events to your web site …
(Add opt-in forms and animation to your WordPress website with Thrive Lightbox)
2-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-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 …
(two-step opt-in forms can help increase your conversion rates.)
Thrive Lightbox Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make opt-in forms appear when when visitors click or hover 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 images on your web pages, using a range of effects (e.g. zoom in, 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.
Feedback From Customers
Below are just some testimonials that customers have provided for Thrive Content Builder:
“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”
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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 – Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any WordPress theme, 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 be displayed correctly on on your web site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built using Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin Support
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder Plugin 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 really well-supported, and users get unlimited upgrades, and one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users that will just keep getting better.
Product Pricing
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 enables you to run the plugin on one website only. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This allows you to set up the plugin on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency License – Use on all your domains and on client sites. It includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: The cost to purchase this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was current at the time this content was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the product seller when you visit the website 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 Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder plugin developers emphatically 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 templates that help make designing your content faster, and on the other hand, you have complete control over your design process and the freedom to edit everything on your web page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, that allows you to work unhindered by overly complicated options.
For a demo video of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive Content Builder website.
We Recommend …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you can see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, all you have to do is simply drag it and drop it into its new location. There are no overly complicated steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your web site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, this plugin delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For full details, check out the plugin here:
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