WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool that is now being used to design all types of pages – marketing pages, product showcase pages, local business pages, etc.
Whatever you can think of, someone is bound to be already building it using WordPress!
This article will help you discover the simplest way to create stunning content in your WordPress site.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Visual Editor – Is There An Easier Way For Creating Great-Looking Content Layouts In WordPress?
With all the rapid advancements that WordPress has gone through in recent years, many WordPress users and developers believe that the WordPress editor is lagging behind the improvements made to the software.
(The built-in WordPress visual content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding more complex page elements can be quite challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the layout shown below …
To create the above layout, you would normally have to add shortcodes to the content for each of the page elements you want to add to your page …
Generally, this is not an issue … until you want to change your layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or replace the background color in box 1 from dark green to orange. 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 (What You See Is What You Get) content editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to edit complex page elements, often what you see on your screen is not the same as what you get …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, users would probably be better off working with the source html itself instead of the WordPress visual editor when trying to build something other than simple page elements …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it difficult for non-technical users to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental issue with having to use shortcodes and HTML to create content with WordPress can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long does it take to create a 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, what you see when working in the back end does not look even remotely similar to what you see in the front end. This means that you have to abstract what your content will look like when working with complex layouts. Other solutions require taking multiple steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly going back and forth between browser tabs and performing tweaks and updates to see how your content is coming along, which then impacts how quickly you can create your content, as you wait for the updates to refresh.
A number of WordPress developers have come up with a range of solutions with the goal of addressing this issue. Some of these range from WordPress plugins you can add to 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 content creation easier!)
Some solutions include so many page design features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these solutions work fine, but they don’t really address the fundamental challenge of using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. 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 your content to look ”perfect” quickly, this can become really frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your web content?
Now that you’ve asked this question, visualize the following …
- You see something in your content that needs to be changed so you, simply click on the content and start editing it. Your content is instantly changed.
- You simply drag and drop items around the page, and see them exactly as they will display on the front end without having to mentally visualize any shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for a specific piece of content you would like to create, so you simply begin typing, and your web page gets built as you go, with no delays, no switching of tab browsers, and without having to wait for edits to resave and reload.
Would this not be the ideal way to build content for your WordPress site? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the pages and posts?
(Imagine being able to create complex page layouts 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
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a ground-breaking plugin for WordPress that allows you to easily add beautiful content to your posts and pages using true click-to-edit and drag and drop simplicity.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin provides you with a new and incredibly easy way to speed up the process of creating amazing content on your WordPress website.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor with a menu that lets you select, then drag and drop elements to your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new visual content editor to your WordPress site)
The Thrive Content And Landing 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.
Let’s take a look at each of the above plugins and how all of this powerful functionality works together to help you transform and improve your site and create amazing marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin
You can easily add content to your web pages and build complex page layouts using drag and drop elements …
Every element on your page can be created, changed and customized using “drag and drop” and “click-to-edit” …
Once you have positioned your elements on your page, you can then easily edit these without going through additional steps or complicated option windows …
The built-in Landing Pages editor also lets you work inside highly attractive landing pages and easily edit these …
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing web pages with the Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder plugin installed is so effortlessly easy, that the developers warn that you’ll never look at the process of creating content the same way once you start using it
More info: Thrive Content Builder
The integrated Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin was created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another great plugin for WordPress we’ve reviewed on this site.
To learn more about the plugin, see this post:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Be Up And Running In No Time
Thrive Content Builder installs just like every other plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your administrator account and activate.
Edit Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is very simple and intuitive to use and lets you create, edit and add content to your web pages in real-time.
What You See Is Really What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “backend” as you work within the content editor – typefaces, visual elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what you get on the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Stunning Page Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any kind of layout you can imagine with drag and drop ease.
- Design Elements Included: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get a visually exciting click-to-edit content editor, but the plugin also includes an impressive collection of professional web design elements that you can add to your pages without using shortcodes, for e.g.: content toggle, borderless content, testimonials, responsive Google maps, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to deal with technical stuff for your page to refresh frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you work or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you need done.
(Create, edit and customize web page elements like testimonial boxes, tabbed content, feature grids, page section dividers, countdown timers, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder provides many unique features to website owners. Here are just some of these features:
- Regular Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the built-in content editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold formatting, paragraph formatting, heading styles, 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 when creating or editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin provides you with various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help 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 Page Design: Add mobile-friendly elements like columns, guarantee boxes, content section dividers, e.g. which will display correctly on different screens.
- Add Animation Events To Your Web Pages: The 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 sets are web 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 plugin lets you easily add conversion-optimized web pages to your web site)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time designing landing pages for your web site
- 100% conversion-optimized web page templates
- No coding skills needed
- Works with any WordPress theme
Thrive Content and Page Builder not only can be used to create beautiful-looking 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 currently over 30 templates available, with more templates being worked on. In addition to the templates that are currently available, expect to see new templates in the future for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Customizable Landing Page Template Sets
Typically, 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 how to code web pages 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 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 creating conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you beautiful pre-built web page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change and customize any aspect of the page …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Modify text in all headlines, buttons, bullet points, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other element of the landing page
- Replace the background image and background color
- Change the color of text, buttons, links, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Select your own images and graphics
- Modify the size of the content area
- Rearrange the order of elements on your page
- Translate everything on the page into a different language
- Add any kind of custom content anywhere 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 edit anything on the page)
Transform Your WordPress Site Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive plugin combo also includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully editable two-step opt-in forms and animated objects to your content pages …
(Add lead capture forms and events to your web pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
2-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process can help increase your conversion rates. Visitors click on an image or button, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(two-step opt-in forms can 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 graphic elements, or when someone scrolls down to a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate images on your web pages, using various animation effects (e.g. zoom out, slide in from right to left, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress site with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over events, triggers and design.
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have submitted regarding 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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”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”
Thrive Content Builder Plugin – Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any WordPress theme, not just with the Thrive Landing Pages plugin. Note, however, that you cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content on pages or posts that were not created with the plugin.
You can add short codes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will be displayed correctly when published.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content you build using Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages Plugin comes with free updates, new landing templates 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, plus 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users that just keeps getting better.
Plugin 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 edition allows you to activate the plugin on a single website. It includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This edition lets you activate the plugin on all of your personal domains. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency Licensing – This lets you install the plugin on all of your own sites and any client sites. Includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: The cost of purchasing Thrive Content Builder depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin author when you visit the site 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 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 page elements and templates that help speed up the content creation process, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over the design process and the ability to change everything on your web page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that allows you to work unhindered by overly complicated options.
For ”how to” videos of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive plugins website.
Our Recommendation …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you’ll 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 extra steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your site and create amazing marketing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For complete details, check out the plugin here:
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