WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool that can be used to create all kinds of sites.
Whatever you can imagine, somewhere around the world someone is most likely already building it with WordPress!
This article will help you discover the simplest, most intuitive visual content editor for WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Is The Default WordPress Visual Editor Meeting All Of Your Web Design Needs?
With all the many advancements that WordPress has undergone in recent years, many WordPress users feel that using the default WordPress WYSIWYG editor to create or edit complex web pages can be challenging.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional content, but adding more complex page elements can be challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the layout shown below …
Creating the above in a page would require inserting something like this inside the default WordPress content editor …
Normally, this is not an issue … unless you choose to change your layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or replace the background color inside a box from bright red to a different color. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code or html.
The WordPress visual editor is supposed to provide users with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to edit complex content elements, what you see on your screen may not be what you are getting when the page goes live …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, users would probably be better off working directly inside the html editor tab instead of the WordPress WYSIWYG editor when trying to create something other than simple page elements …
Even though WordPress is very user-friendly, this makes it hard for users without knowledge of HTML or CSS to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental issue about having to use HTML and shortcodes to create content in the default WordPress editor can be summarized as follows:
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” resemble the “front end” content when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above screenshot, what you see when working in the back end 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 a number of steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing tweaks and updates to see how your content is progressing, which then impacts how fast you can create your content, as you wait for the content to refresh.
Many WordPress developers have tried to come up with various solutions with the aim of addressing this issue. Some of these solutions range from stand alone WordPress plugins you can add to your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that offer built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make creating complex layouts easier!)
Some solutions require so many page design features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these alternative editors work fine, but they don’t really seem to address the fundamental challenge of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. Creating, 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 your web pages to look ”perfect” quickly, this can start to become really frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your content?
Now that you’ve asked this question, visualize the following scenario …
- You spot something in the content that needs to be changed so you, simply click on the content and start changing it. Your content is then instantly fixed.
- You can drag and drop items on the page, and the page looks exactly as it will display on the front end without having to mentally translate any shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for some content that you would like to create, so you simply begin typing, and your web page gets built on the fly, with no delays, without tab switching, and without waiting for pages to republish and reload.
Would this not be the perfect way to create content for your WordPress web site? A true WYSIWYG editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your pages and posts?
(Imagine being able to create complex page layouts quickly for your web content without 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 Beautiful Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease In WordPress Web Sites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a unique WordPress plugin that allows website owners to easily create stunning content layout with true click-to-edit and drag and drop simplicity.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin provides you with a new and exciting way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress website.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor and an item menu that lets you drag and drop elements to your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editing option to WordPress)
Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder 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.
In this article we’ll take a look at all of the above and how these features work together to help you easily transform and improve your site and create awesome marketing pages and content.
Thrive Content Builder For WordPress
Thrive Content Builder lets you easily build complex web page design layouts using drag and drop elements …
Everything on your page can be designed with ”click-to-edit” and “drag and drop” ease …
Once you have placed your elements on your page, you can then continue to customize them without having to go through additional steps or switching tabs …
You can also work inside highly attractive landing pages and easily edit these …
Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing pages with the Thrive Content Builder plugin installed is so amazingly simple, that the developers guarantee that you’ll never look at creating content the same way once you start using it
To learn more about this plugin go here: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another fantastic plugin that we have previously recommended on this site.
For more information about using this plugin, see this post:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Installation Is Easy, Simple & Fast
Thrive Content Builder installs like every other plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin account and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Creation
Thrive Content Builder is is not only very simple to use, it also lets you edit and add content right inside your web pages in real-time.
A Truly Visual Editor
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the editor – typefaces, elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see in the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits of using the plugin include the following:
- Add Stunning Web Page Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any type of layout you can imagine with drag and drop ease.
- Customizable Elements Included: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get a click-to-edit content builder, but the plugin also includes a jaw-dropping collection of functional and attractive web design elements that you can use on your content layouts without using short codes, like columns, content reveal feature, page section dividers, code insert boxes, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to wait for the content to reload frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build or edit your content or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Easily create, edit and customize page elements like testimonials, tabbed content, table of contents builder, dividers, responsive video embeds, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder provides WP users many powerful features. Here are just some of these features:
- Built-In WordPress Content Functionality Is Preserved: You have all of the regular content editing options that you are used to (e.g. underline, centering text, heading styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” table of multi-style elements to your post or page screen for editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin includes a range of attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help increase your 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 mobile-friendly elements like columns, boxes, content section dividers, e.g. which will adjust to display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you create animated page content, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web 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 initial signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages provides you with conversion-optimized web page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Everything is hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time creating great-looking web pages
- 100% conversion-optimized web page templates
- No tech skills required
- Works with any WordPress theme
Thrive Content and Page 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 landing page templates and fully customizable …
(Landing page sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are currently 30+ templates available, with more templates being worked on. In addition to the templates that are currently available, expect to see new templates in the future for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Customizable Landing Page Template
Typically, to be able 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 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 page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change or edit any element of your page template …
With the landing page template sets included with this plugin, you are able to:
- Edit text in any button, headline, bullet point, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Change the background image or colours
- Edit the color of text, buttons, links, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Select your own images and graphics
- Edit content area size
- Change the order of web page elements
- Translate pages into a different language
- Add custom content anywhere inside your pages
- Start with a blank web page and create your own templates, or even build a library of custom landing pages.
(Change or customize any aspect of your page templates)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Site Into A Powerful Marketing Machine
The Thrive plugin combo includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully configurable 2-step opt-in forms and events to your pages …
(Add lead capture forms and events to your WordPress site with Thrive Lightbox)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process helps to improve your conversion rates. Visitors click on an image or button, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(Visitors click on a button and are presented with an opt-in form)
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 a range of animation effects (e.g. fade in, slide in from right to left, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your marketing pages 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.
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials plugin customers have written about Thrive Content Builder:
”Wow! This is just getting better & better. This plugin is making my websites look so professional. Keep up the great work and thank you for the new features. Ladonna Ragalin”
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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”
Thrive Content Builder – Useful Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any theme in WordPress, not just with Thrive Landing Pages. Note, however, that you cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content on pages or posts that were not created using the plugin.
You can add WordPress shortcodes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will display correctly when published.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built using Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages Plugin 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 software is really well-supported, and users get unlimited software updates, and 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep getting better.
Plugin 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 License – This option lets you run the plugin on a single site. 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 of your personal web sites. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Licensing – This option enables you to use the plugin on all of your own sites and any client web sites. Price includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: The price of the Thrive Content Builder product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
The developers of the Thrive 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 conversion-optimized template sets that help to speed up the content creation process, and on the other hand, you have complete control over the 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 steps.
For a demo video of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive website.
Download This Plugin …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you will see the change happen instantly. If you want to move something, all you have to do is drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no unnecessary steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your business online and create awesome marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin website here:
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