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 most likely already building it using WordPress!
In this article you will learn how to create beautiful layouts with drag & drop ease in WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Is The WordPress Visual Editor Still Meeting All Of Your Content Creation And Editing Needs?
With all the rapid developments that WordPress has undergone in recent years, many WordPress users and developers believe that using the WordPress visual content editor to create or edit more complex website pages can be challenging.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding complex layouts can be challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the layout shown below …
Adding the above page elements would require inserting something like this inside your WordPress visual content editor …
Generally, this is not an issue … until you need to reconfigure the layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or replace the button in box 2 from bright red to maroon. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress visual content 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 creating with complex page elements, what you see in the visual editor is not what you are going to get when your content gets published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, you would probably be better off working inside the html (text) editor tab instead of the WYSIWYG editor when trying to add complex page elements …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it difficult for users with no coding skills to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental issue of using HTML and shortcodes to create content in WordPress can be summarized by asking the following questions:
1) Speed – How long will it take to build a page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the ”back end” match the content in the “front end” when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above, what you see when working in the editor looks nothing like what you see in the front end. This means that you have to mentally translate what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require taking several 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 coming along, which then affects how fast you can create your content, as you wait for your content to reload.
Many WordPress developers have tried to come up with different solutions with the objective of addressing this issue. Some of these range from standalone 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 combining so many complex page-building features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these alternative solutions work, but they still fail to address the fundamental challenge of using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Creating and adding 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 your page content to look “just right” quickly, this can start to become very frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your pages?
Now, imagine the following …
- You spot something in the content that needs correction so you, simply click on the content and start changing it. Your content has been instantly changed.
- You can just drag and drop elements on the page, and the page looks exactly as it will display on the front end without having to mentally visualize HTML or shortcodes.
- You have an idea for an item of content you would like to create, so you just begin typing, and you build your page on the fly, without delays, with no switching of tab browsers, and without waiting for web pages to refresh.
Would that not be the perfect way to build content for your web site? A true WYSIWYG 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 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 Content Builder – Create Stunning Content And Beautiful Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease In WordPress Web Sites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive click-to-edit drag-and-drop content and page builder plugin for WordPress.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin provides WordPress users with a new and incredibly easy way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress site.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor with an item menu that lets you click, then drag and drop design elements on your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content builder to your WordPress site)
Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder is actually a combination of the Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages plugins rolled into one, plus an additional plugin feature called Thrive Lightbox.
We’ll take a look at all of the above and how these features work together to help you transform and improve your site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag & Drop Content Builder
This plugin lets you easily add content to your web pages and build complex page layouts using drag and drop elements …
Everything on your page can be built and changed by ”clicking-to-edit” and “dragging and dropping” things around the page …
Once you have placed elements on the page, you can then further edit them without having to go through additional steps or switching screens …
You can also build highly attractive landing pages that can just as easily be edited or 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 with Thrive Content Builder installed is so effortlessly simple, that the developers guarantee that you’ll never look back once you start using it
Learn more here: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another amazing plugin for WordPress we’ve previously reviewed on this site.
To learn more about using this plugin, see this page:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Quick And Easy To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Thrive Content Builder installs just like any plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator account and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Creation
Thrive Content Builder is is not only really simple to use, it also lets you build content in real-time.
A Truly Visual Editor
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “backend” as you work within the editor – fonts, elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see on the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits of using the plugin include:
- Beautiful Page Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease: Create any type of layout you can imagine with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- Add Design Elements With No Short Codes Involved: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get a drag and drop content builder, but the plugin also includes a collection of functional and attractive web design elements that you can customizable and add to your layouts without using short codes, such as pricing tables, gradient boxes, testimonials, responsive video embeds, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to deal with technical stuff for the content to load frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build or edit your content or click through multiple steps to get what you want done.
(Easily insert, edit and customize page elements like testimonials, pricing tables, gradient boxes, dividers, custom HTML and CSS, etc.)
Plugin Features
Thrive Content Builder provides WP users a number of unique features. Here are just some:
- Regular WordPress Editor Functionality Is Preserved: You have all of the built-in text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold, paragraph centering, headings and font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Multi-Style Elements Menu: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” list of multi-style elements to your post or page screen when editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help increase your sales conversions, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantees. In addition to customization options, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Responsive Page Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, boxes, content dividers, e.g. which will display great on devices with differently sized screens.
- Add Animation To Pages: Thrive Content Builder’s Event Manager feature lets you insert animated content elements, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – 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 initial signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages gives you access to conversion-optimized web page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money designing web pages
- 100% conversion-optimized web pages
- No tech skills needed
- Works with any WordPress theme
Thrive 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 …
(Thrive Landing Pages provides sets of templates 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 Landing Page Template
Typically, in order to fully customize a landing page template, you would need to either hire a web site 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 mess around with 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 great-looking pre-designed web pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change and edit any element of the page template …
The landing page template sets included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Change text in all bullet points, buttons, headlines, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other component of the landing page
- Change the background image or background colours
- Edit the color of text, buttons, links, etc.
- Select your own fonts
- Use your own images
- Change the size of the content area
- Rearrange the order of elements on your page
- Translate pages into a different language
- Add custom content in your pages
- Start with a blank web page and create your own templates, or even build your own library of custom landing page templates.
(Change or customize any element of the page template)
Transform Your Website Into A Powerful Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive plugin package includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully configurable two-step opt-in forms and animated objects to your pages …
(Add lead capture forms and animation to your marketing pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Thrive Lighbox Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-step opt-in process helps increase your conversion rates. Visitors click on an image or button, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(Opt-in forms can improve your conversion rates.)
Thrive Lightbox Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make opt-in forms appear when your visitor clicks or hovers 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 animation effects (e.g. fade out, slide in from left to right, rotate, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress web site with Thrive Lightbox)
A lightbox and event is created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over events, triggers and design.
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that 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”
Plugin Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any WordPress theme, not just with Thrive Landing Pages. Note, however, that you cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content that was not created with the plugin installed.
You can add WordPress shortcodes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will be displayed correctly on on your web site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built with Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin Support
Thrive Content and Page Builder comes with free updates, new landing templates and upcoming features. The Thrive team is constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive products are well-supported, and users get unlimited software updates, plus 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, 100% refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that just keeps 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 License Edition – This option lets you use the plugin on 1 site only. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This lets you set up the plugin on all web sites that you personally own. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Edition – This license option lets you set up the plugin on all of your own web sites and all client web sites. Pricing includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: The price of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product retails for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the product developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
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 time-saving features like ready-made page elements and templates that help make designing your pages faster, and on the other hand, you also have 100% control over the design process and the ability to change everything on your page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that lets you work unhindered by overly complicated options.
For a demo video of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive website.
Get 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, simply drag it and drop it into its new location. There are no additional steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your website and create amazing marketing pages and content, this plugin delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here:
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