WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool being used to design all types of pages – direct sales pages, portfolio pages, local business pages, etc.
Whatever you can think of, somewhere around the world someone is probably already building it with WordPress!
This article will help you discover the simplest WYSIWYG content builder for WordPress websites.
Drag & Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Editor – Is There A Simpler Way For Creating Web Pages In WordPress?
Using the default WordPress WYSIWYG content editor to create or edit complex content elements can be challenging for non-technical web site owners.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and images, but adding complex layouts can be quite challenging!)
For example, if you look at the image below …
Adding the above to a page would require typing something that looks like this into your default WordPress visual content editor …
Typically, this is not really an issue … until you need to change an element of the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 3 into box 2, or change the background colour inside a box from green to dark red. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with code.
The WordPress visual editor is supposed to be an easy-to-use WYSIWYG content editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to edit more complex layouts, what you see in the WordPress visual editor screen is not what you are getting when the content is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, users could be better off working directly with the html source itself instead of the WYSIWYG editor when trying to add fancy layouts …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it hard for WordPress site owners without knowledge of HTML or CSS to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental challenge about having to use HTML and shortcodes to create content in the default WordPress visual editor 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 in the content editor doesn’t look anything like what you see in the front end. This means that users have to translate mentally 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 refresh.
A number of WordPress web developers have come up with various solutions aiming to address this issue. These solutions range from standalone WordPress plugins you can add to your site that add new functionality to the editor, to WordPress themes that come with built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make creating complex page layouts easier!)
Some solutions end up combining so many complex page design features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these alternative solutions work, but they fail to address the fundamental challenge of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. Creating and adding non-linear content 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 content quickly, this can start to become really frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your web page builder to function?
Now that you’ve asked this question, visualize the following …
- You look at your content and if you see something that needs to be changed, simply click on the content and start typing. Your content is instantly changed.
- You can just drag and drop items on the page, and the page looks exactly as it will appear on the front end without having to mentally translate any code.
- You have an idea for some content that you’d like to add, so you immediately start typing, and your page gets built on the fly, without delays, no tab switching, and no waiting for pages to refresh.
Would that not be the perfect way to create content for your site? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your page?
(Imagine being able to create complex web pages 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 Landing Pages And Content Builder – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content And Page Creation Plugin
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive click-to-edit drag-and-drop content editing plugin for WordPress.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin is a new and exciting way to speed up the process of adding great content to your WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor and an item menu that lets you click, then drag and drop elements on your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new visual editor to WordPress)
The Thrive Content 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 an in-depth a look at each of the above plugins and how all of this functionality works together to help you easily transform and improve your web presence and create amazing marketing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder – Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content Editor For WordPress
Thrive Content Builder lets you easily add content to your web pages and build complex page layouts using drag and drop elements …
Every aspect of your page can be created by dragging and dropping things around the page and then clicking to edit them …
Once elements have been positioned on the page, you can then continue to customize or edit them without having to go through multiple steps or switching tabs …
You can also create stunning 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, working on content with Thrive Content and Page Builder installed is so amazingly 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 we’ve previously written about on this site.
For more information about using this plugin, see this article:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up your page design and content creation process:
Installation Is Easy And Quick
Thrive Content Builder installs like any WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user login and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Creation
Thrive Content Builder is simple to use and lets you create and add content to 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, visual elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what you get in the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Attractive Web Page Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any type of layout you can imagine with intuitive drag and drop functionality.
- Add Design Elements Without Short Codes: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get a click-to-edit WordPress content editor, but the plugin also includes a very decent collection of professional design elements that you can insert into your pages without using shortcodes, such as columns, star ratings for review pages, section dividers, responsive Google map embeds, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to deal with technical stuff for your updated content 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.
(Insert, edit and customize page elements like testimonial boxes, columns, table of contents builder, dividers, countdown timers, etc.)
Plugin Features
Thrive Content Builder provides WordPress users many unique features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Regular Content Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the regular text editing options that you are used to (e.g. underline, centering text, headings and font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” list of multi-style elements available on your post or page screen for editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantees. In addition to being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, guarantee boxes, section dividers, e.g. which will resize and display correctly on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Your 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 – Landing Page Templates
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 plugin lets you add conversion-optimized web pages to your website)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money creating and customizing web pages for your WordPress site
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No web coding skills needed
- Works with all themes
Thrive Content and Landing 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, web page templates that are conversion-optimized 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 thirty templates available, with more templates scheduled for future release. In addition to the templates that are currently available, the developers plan to release new templates for email lead generation, sales pages, course pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Completely Customizable And Flexible Landing Page Template
Normally, to be able to have a completely customizable landing page template, you would need to either pay 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 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 building conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you stunning pre-built web pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change and customize any element of the page template …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Change text in any headline, bullet point, button, etc.
- Delete text, images or any other element of the landing page
- Replace any background images or color
- Change the color of text, links, buttons, etc.
- Use your own fonts
- Select your own images and graphics
- Modify the size of the content area
- Change the order of web page elements
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add any kind of custom content inside your pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own page templates, or even build a custom landing page templates library.
(Change or customize any element of the page template)
Transform Your Website Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive plugin package also includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully configurable two-step opt-in forms and events to your website …
(Add opt-in forms and events to your web pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Thrive Lighbox 2-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process helps to improve your conversion rates. When visitors click on an image or button they are presented with your opt-in form …
(Opt-in forms can increase your conversion rates.)
Thrive Lightbox 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 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 pages, using various effects (e.g. zoom out, slide in from left to right, rotate, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress web site with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over the events, triggers and design.
Testimonials
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin 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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”Your stuff is beautifully designed, fast and has great options for marketers that you just don’t see with other themes. Great, great job! Absolutely love Thrive! David Coleman”
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 pages or posts that were not created using the plugin.
You can add short codes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will display correctly on the front end.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built using Thrive Content Builder.
Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages Plugin provides 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 really well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades, and 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 30 day, complete money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users that just keeps getting better.
Software 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 License Edition – This option enables you to use the plugin on 1 site only. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This lets you activate the plugin on all of your personal sites. Price includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Edition – This option enables you to use the plugin on all of your own domains and any client web sites. Pricing includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Please Note: The price of Thrive Content Builder depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product is selling for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software developer when you visit the product site and there may be 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 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 web page elements and templates that help to speed up page design and content creation, and on the other hand, you have complete control over your design process and the ability to edit anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, which allows you to see how the content you are working on will appear after being published.
For a demo video showing plugin usage, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the plugin website.
Download The Plugin …
If you want to edit something, you just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, do it, and you can see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, just drag it and drop it into its new location. There are no unnecessary steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your web presence and create amazing marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more information, visit the plugin website:
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