WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging application to a tool that is now used to create all types of websites.
Whatever you can imagine, someone is bound to be already building it with WordPress!
This article will help you discover the ultimate click-to-edit front end builder for WordPress websites.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Is The WordPress WYSIWYG Editor Meeting All Of Your Page Design Needs?
Using the built-in WordPress editor to create or edit complex page elements can sometimes be difficult, especially for non-technical WordPress users.
(The WordPress editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and media, but adding more complex layouts can be challenging!)
For example, if you look at the screenshot below …
Adding the above to your content would require entering something like this into your WordPress visual editor …
Typically, this is not an issue … until you decide to reconfigure your layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or change the background colour in a box from red to purple. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress visual editor is supposed to provide users with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) content editor, but as you can see, if you are working with complex page elements, what you see may not be the same as what you are getting when your web page is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some instances, users could even be better off working inside the html (text) editor tab instead of the visual editor when trying to add complex layouts …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it hard for users with no knowledge of HTML or CSS to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental issue with using HTML and shortcodes to create content in WordPress can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long will it take to create a page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the editor match 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 editor does not look at all like what you see in the front end. This means that you need to abstract what the content will look like when working with complex layouts. Other solutions require multiple 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 progressing, which can interrupt the creative process, as you wait for the updated content to load.
Many WordPress web developers have come up with a range of solutions to try and address this issue. These range from plugins you can add to your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that come with built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make content creation easier!)
Some solutions require so many page-building features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these alternative editors work, but they don’t address the fundamental problem with using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Adding and editing non-linear content 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 layouts quickly, this can become quite frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your content editor to behave?
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 changing it. Your content is instantly edited.
- You can just drag and drop elements around the page, and see them exactly as they will appear on the front end without having to mentally abstract from shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for an item of content that you would like to add, so you just begin typing, and you build your page on the fly, without delays, no switching of tab browsers, and no waiting for web pages to resave and reload.
Would this not be the perfect way to create content for your site? A true visual content builder where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the posts and pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex page layouts ”on the fly” 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 – The Most Intuitive Way To Build Stunning Content And Beautiful Page Layouts In WordPress
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a unique plugin for WordPress that gives you total control over every aspect of your content 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 set up conversion-focused pages on your WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor with a sidebar menu that lets you click, then drag and drop elements to your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editing option to WordPress)
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.
Let’s review all of the above plugins and how these exciting features work together to help you easily transform and improve your site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder
You can easily add content to your web pages and build complex page layouts using drag and drop elements …
Everything on your page can be configured and changed with ”click-to-edit” and “drag and drop” ease …
Once elements have been added to a page, you can continue to further edit or customize them without having to go through multiple steps or switching tabs …
You can also work inside beautiful landing pages that can also be easily customized …
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 Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages installed is so effortlessly simple, that the developers guarantee that once you start using it, it will ruin the experience of using any other content editor forever, and you will never look back!
Go here to learn more about the plugin: Thrive Content Builder
The integrated Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin was created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another excellent plugin for WordPress we’ve written about on this site.
To read about the plugin, see this post:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Content Builder And Landing Pages
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up your page design and content creation process:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Thrive Content Builder is quite easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your admin user account and activate.
Edit Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is is not only really simple and intuitive to use, it also lets you create, edit and add content right inside your web pages in real-time.
What You See Is Truly What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “back-end” as you work within the editor – typefaces, visual elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what you get on the front end of your site.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Eye-Catching Web Page 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 content builder, but the plugin also includes an impressive collection of customizable design elements that you can add to your layouts without using short codes, such as tabbed content, borderless content, call to action buttons, custom HTML and CSS, etc.
- More Enjoyable Content Creation: Not having to deal with technical stuff for the new content to load frees up your attention and allows you to build the web pages your business needs, quickly and without having to mess with code or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Insert, edit and customize web page elements like testimonials, tabbed content, styled lists, buttons, HTML code insert boxes, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder offers WordPress users many features. Here are just some:
- Regular Content Editor Functionality Is Preserved: You have all of the regular WordPress text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold, left-aligned paragraphs, font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements Menu: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” list of elements to your post or page screen for creating and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with 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 guarantee forms. In addition to being customizable, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Responsive Web Element Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, boxes, section 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 images, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Template Sets
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 provides you with conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money building gorgeous-looking web pages
- 100% conversion-optimized pages
- No tech skills needed
- Works with any WordPress theme
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages not only lets you create beautiful 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 currently over 30 templates available, with more templates planned for future release. In addition to the templates shown above, 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 Sets
Typically, in order to have a completely customizable landing page template, you would need to either pay a web designer 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 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-built pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change or edit anything on the page template …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Change text in all bullet points, headlines, buttons, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of your landing page
- Change the background image or colors
- Edit the color of text, buttons, links, etc.
- Select your own fonts
- Select your own images
- Modify content area size
- Change the order of page elements
- Translate pages into a different language
- Add any kind of custom content anywhere inside your pages
- Use pre-designed, customized pages, or create your own pages from scratch and save them as new page templates.
(Change and customize any element of the page template)
Transform Your Web Site Into A Powerful Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive package also includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully editable two-step opt-in forms and animated elements to your WordPress site …
(Add opt-in forms and animation to your web pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-step opt-in process helps 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 2-step opt-in process)
Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make an opt-in form 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 attention-getting elements on your web pages, using various effects (e.g. zoom out, slide in from right to left, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over all events, triggers and design.
Feedback From Plugin Users
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin customers have written 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”
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 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 be displayed correctly on the front end.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built with Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin Support
Thrive Content 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 software is really well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades, and one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users that just keeps 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 license option allows you to configure the plugin on a single web site. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This enables you to activate the plugin on all domains that you own. It includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency Licensing – This enables you to run the plugin on all of your own websites and your client domains. Includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: The cost to purchase the Thrive Content Builder plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this review was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information:
Additional Info
The Thrive Landing Pages and Content 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 beautiful, pre-designed template sets that help to speed up the content creation process, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over your design process and the freedom to edit anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that lets you work unhindered by overly complicated options.
For a demo video of the plugin in action, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive plugins website.
Install This Plugin …
If you want to edit something, you 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 need to do is simply drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no overly complicated steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your website and create amazing sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, this plugin delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more details, check out the plugin here:
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