WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool that can be used to create all types of sites.
Whatever you can imagine, somewhere around the world someone is probably already building it with WordPress!
This article will help you discover the ultimate click-to-edit front end visual content builder for WordPress web sites.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Does The Default WordPress Visual Editor Still Meet All Of Your Page Design Needs?
Using the WordPress visual content editor to build or edit complex content elements can sometimes be quite challenging.
(The built-in WordPress WYSIWYG content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and media, but adding more complex page elements can be challenging!)
For example, if you look at the illustration below …
To create the above boxes with text and buttons, you would need to insert short codes into the content for each page element you want to display to visitors …
Generally, this is not an issue … unless you decide to change the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or change the background colour in a box from bright red to another colour. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress visual content 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, when creating with complex page elements, often what you see on your editor screen is not really what you are getting when the web page is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, you could even be better off working inside the html editor tab instead of the WordPress WYSIWYG editor when trying to create non-linear layouts …
Even though WordPress is very user-friendly, this makes it difficult for non-technical website owners to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental issue about having to use shortcodes and HTML to create content with WordPress can be summarized by asking 2 questions:
1) Speed – How long does it take to build a web page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the ”back end” match the “front end” content when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above screenshot, what you see in the 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 taking a number of steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly going back and forth between browser tabs and performing updates to see how your content is coming along, which can interrupt the creative process, as you wait for the updates to load.
Many WordPress developers have come up with a range of solutions with the aim of making content editing more intuitive. These solutions range from WP plugins you can add to your site that add new functionality to the editor, to WordPress themes that provide built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make content creation easier!)
Some solutions end up requiring 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 fine, but they don’t address the fundamental challenge of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. 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 to create or edit complex page layouts 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 web page builder to behave?
Now that you’ve asked this question, visualize this …
- You look at your content and if you see something that needs correction, just click on the content and start changing it. Your content is instantly fixed.
- You can drag and drop items around the page, and the page looks exactly as it will appear on the front end without having to mentally translate HTML or shortcodes.
- You have an idea for some content that you’d like to add, so you simply begin typing, and your page gets built on the fly, without delays, with no tab switching, and without waiting for edits to resave and reload.
Would this not be the ideal way to build content for your WordPress website? A true visual content builder 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 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 And Landing Pages – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag & Drop Content Editing Plugin
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a ground-breaking WordPress plugin that lets users quickly add content to their posts and pages using a powerful click-to-edit and drag and drop content editor.
Thrive Content Builder is a new and exciting way to speed up the process of creating amazing content on 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 design elements on your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new visual content editing option to WordPress)
The Thrive Content Builder And Landing Pages plugin 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.
Let’s take an in-depth a look at all of the above and how these features work seamlessly together to help you transform and improve your business online and create amazing sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder
With this plugin installed easily add complex design layouts to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every aspect of your web page can be configured with “drag and drop” and “click-to-edit” ease …
Once elements have been positioned on the page, you can then further edit these without having to go through multiple steps or opening new 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 web pages with the plugin installed is so amazingly easy, that the developers warn that you’ll never look at creating and adding content the same way once you start using it
More info: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another fantastic plugin for WordPress that we have previously written about on this site.
To read more about this plugin, see this post:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Content And Page Builder Plugin
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up your page design and content creation process:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Thrive Content Builder installs just like any regular WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin section and activate.
Edit And Add Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is simple and intuitive to use and lets you create and add content right inside your pages in real-time.
What You See Is Really What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the editor – typefaces, elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see in the front end of your site.
Additional benefits of this plugin include the following:
- Stunning Web Page Layouts With Drag And Drop Ease: Create any layout you can imagine with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- Add Customizable Elements Without Shortcodes: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get an exciting and easy-to-use click-to-edit content builder, but the plugin also includes a collection of design elements that you can customizable and insert into your pages without using short codes, for e.g.: pricing tables, content boxes, testimonials, custom HTML and CSS, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to deal with technical stuff for your page to load 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 steps to get what you want done.
(Add, edit and customize web page elements like testimonial boxes, pricing tables, content reveal feature, dividers, responsive video embeds, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder provides many powerful features to web site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- All Content Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have all of the regular content editing options that you are used to (e.g. underline, justified text, heading styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” list of elements to your post or page screen when creating and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin includes a range of eye-catching and customizable elements that will help you increase your sales conversions, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantees. In addition to being customizable, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Responsive Element Design: Add responsive columns, text boxes, dividers, e.g. which will resize and display correctly on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Your Web Pages: The Event Manager feature lets you add animated page content, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Landing Page Template 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 gives you conversion-optimized web page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time designing beautiful-looking pages for your WordPress site
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No web coding skills required
- Works with any theme
Thrive 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 professionally designed, web 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 scheduled for future release. In addition to the templates shown above, expect to see new templates in the future for email lead generation, sales pages, course pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Customize Your Landing Page Template
Normally, in order to have fully customizable landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web site designer 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 code or use 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 attractive pre-built web page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change and customize any element of your page templates …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you are able to:
- Change text in all bullet points, headlines, buttons, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Change any background images or colors
- Edit the color of buttons, links, text, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Use your own images
- Edit content area size
- Change the order of elements on your page
- Translate pages into different languages
- Add custom content inside the pages
- Use pre-designed, customized pages, or create your own from scratch and save them as new web page templates.
(Change or customize any aspect of your page template)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Website Into A Marketing Machine
The Thrive package includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully customizable two-step opt-in forms and events to your website …
(Add opt-in forms and animation to your pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-step opt-in process can help improve your conversion rates. When visitors click on an image or button 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 a range of effects (e.g. zoom out, slide in from bottom to top, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress web site with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
A lightbox and event is created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over your events, triggers and design.
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about 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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”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 Thrive Landing Pages. You cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content that was not created with the plugin installed.
You can add short codes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will display correctly on on your web site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built with Thrive Content Builder.
Support
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder Plugin provides free updates, new landing templates and upcoming features. The Thrive team is constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive software is really well-supported, and users get unlimited software upgrades, plus one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep getting better.
Plugin 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 license option allows you to install the plugin on one site only. Price includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This allows you to use the plugin on all of your personal domains. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency License Edition – This allows you to run the plugin on all of your own web sites and all client sites. It includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Cost = $247.00 per year.
Please Note: The cost to purchase the Thrive Content Builder software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller 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 the current pricing here:
Additional Plugin 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 conversion-optimized template sets that help make designing your content faster, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over the design process and the ability to edit and customize everything on your page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, which allows you to get things done without having to open multiple dialog boxes.
For ”how to” videos showing how the software works, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive website.
Our Recommendation …
If you want to edit something, simply click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, do it, and you can see the change happen instantly. If you want to move something, all you need to do is drag it and drop it into its new location. There are no additional 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, visit the plugin website:
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