WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging application to a tool that is now being used to design all types of web pages – marketing pages, product showcase pages, local business pages, etc.
Whatever you can imagine, someone is bound to be already building it using WordPress!
This article will help you learn how to create beautiful web page layouts with drag & drop ease in WordPress.
Drag & Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Editor – Is There An Easier Way For Creating Content Layouts In WordPress?
With so many developments that the WordPress platform has gone through in recent years, many WordPress developers feel that the WordPress editor is more suitable for performing ”linear” content editing than creating or editing content elements within complex layouts.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and media, but adding more complex page elements can be challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the layout shown below …
To add the above layout to your content would require inserting something that looks like this inside your WordPress visual editor …
Normally, this is not really an issue … unless you choose to change the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or change the button inside a box from bright red to blue. 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, if you are trying to add complex page elements, often what you see in the visual editor may not be what you get …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some instances, users could be better off working directly with the html source itself instead of the WordPress WYSIWYG editor when trying to build something other than simple page elements …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it difficult for users with no coding skills to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental problem with having to use shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress WYSIWYG editor can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long does it take to build a web page using this editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the editor match the content in the “front end” when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above image, what you see when working in the back end doesn’t look even remotely similar to what you see in the front end. This means that users need to translate mentally what the content will look like when working with sophisticated 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 tweaks and updates to see how your content is progressing, which then affects how quickly you can create your content, as you wait for pages to refresh.
Many WordPress developers have tried to come up with a range of solutions with the goal of addressing this issue. These solutions range from standalone WP plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that include built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make content creation easier!)
Some solutions combine so many complex page-building features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these alternative solutions work fine, but they don’t address the fundamental issue 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 content quickly, this can start to become really frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your pages?
Now, visualize the following …
- You spot something in the content that needs correction so you, simply click on the content and start changing it. Your content is 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 visualize shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for an item of content you would like to create, so you simply begin typing, and your web page gets built as you go, with no delays, without tab switching, and without having to wait for edits to refresh and reload.
Would that not be the ideal way to create content for your WordPress website? A true WYSIWYG content editor 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 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 – The Ultimate Drag And Drop Front End Content Editor For WordPress Websites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive WordPress click-to-edit drag and drop content editing plugin.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin provides you with a new and exciting way to set up conversion-focused pages on your WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor and an item 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’ll examine each of the above and how all of this powerful functionality works together to help you easily transform and improve your web site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder – Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content Creation Plugin For WordPress
With this plugin installed easily add content to your web pages and build complex page layouts using drag and drop elements …
Every element on your page can be configured by ”clicking-to-edit” and “dragging and dropping” things around the page …
Once you have positioned your elements on your page, you can then further edit or customize these without having to go through additional steps or switching tabs …
The built-in Landing Pages editor also lets you build highly attractive landing pages and easily edit these …
Thrive Content and Page Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, working on content with Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages installed is so amazingly easy, that the developers guarantee that you will never look back once you start using it
Learn more about the plugin here: Thrive Content Builder
The integrated Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin was created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another amazing plugin we’ve reviewed on this site.
For more information about the plugin, see this article:
Benefits
Below 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 & Easy Installation
Thrive Content Builder installs like any WordPress plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Edit Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is is not only very simple to use, it also lets you build content in real-time.
What You See Is Really What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the content editor – typefaces, visual elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what you get on the front end of your site.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Eye-Catching Page Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease: Create any kind of layout you can imagine with intuitive drag and drop functionality.
- Add Design Elements With No Shortcodes Involved: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get an exciting and simple-to-use click-to-edit WordPress content editor, but the plugin also includes an impressive collection of design elements that you can customizable and insert into your pages without using short codes, such as columns, styled lists, page section dividers, credit card icons, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to deal with technical stuff for your new content to refresh frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build content or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Add, edit and customize web page elements like testimonial boxes, content toggle, styled lists, call to action buttons, code insert boxes, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder provides many great features to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Built-In Editor Functionality Is Preserved: You have access to all of the regular WordPress editing options that you are used to (e.g. underlines, centering text, 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 and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin provides you with a range of 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 Element Design: Add responsive columns, boxes, section dividers, e.g. which will resize and display correctly on different device screens.
- Add Animation To Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you create animation in buttons, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Landing Page Template Sets
Landing page 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 gives you access to conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money creating and customizing pages
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No coding skills required
- Works with all themes
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder not only lets you create beautiful content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of professionally designed, conversion optimized web page templates and fully customizable …
(Landing page sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are 30+ templates available, with more templates planned 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.
Fully 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 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 creating conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you attractive pre-designed pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change and edit any element of the page templates …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Modify text in all headlines, bullet points, buttons, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Change the background image or colors
- Edit the color of buttons, links, text, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Use your own images
- Change content area size
- Change the order of elements on the pages
- Translate pages into a different language
- Add custom content anywhere in your pages
- Start with a blank web page and create your own page templates, or even build your own library of custom landing pages.
(Change or edit any element of your page)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Website Into A Marketing Machine
The Thrive plugin package includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully customizable two-step opt-in forms and animated objects to your pages …
(Add opt-in forms and events to your pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Thrive Lighbox 2-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process helps increase your conversion rates. When visitors click on an image or button they are presented with your opt-in form …
(When visitors click on the button, they are presented with an opt-in form)
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 their mouse 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 a range of animation effects (e.g. zoom in from the page center, slide in from left to right, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress website 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.
Feedback From Plugin Users
Below are a few of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted 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 the Thrive Landing Pages plugin. You cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content on pages or posts that were not created with the plugin.
You can add shortcodes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will display correctly on your website.
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 pages and upcoming features. The plugin developers are constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive plugins are very well-supported, and users get unlimited software upgrades, plus one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep getting better.
Plugin Cost
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 – This license option enables you to run the plugin on 1 web site only. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This enables you to activate the plugin on all domains that you personally own. It includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency License – Use on your web sites and on client domains. Price includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: Current pricing for the Thrive Content Builder product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was correct at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
The Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages plugin developers emphatically 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 time-saving features like ready-made page elements and beautiful, conversion-optimized templates that help to speed up content design, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over the design process and the ability to change everything on your page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, that allows you to see how the content you are working on will display to visitors when published.
For ”how-to” videos of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive plugins website.
Download The Plugin …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, do it, and you will see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, just 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 presence and create awesome sales pages and engaging content, Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For full details, check out the plugin here:
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