WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging application to a tool being used to design all types of pages – direct sales pages, product showcase pages, local business pages, etc.
Whatever you can think of, someone is most likely already building it using WordPress!
This article will help you discover the simplest, most intuitive WYSIWYG editor for WordPress web sites.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Does The WordPress Visual Editor Meet All Of Your Content Creation Needs?
Using the default WordPress WYSIWYG editor to build or edit sophisticated layouts can be difficult.
(The built-in WordPress visual content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding complex content elements can be quite challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the layout shown below …
To create the above boxes with text and buttons, users would need to add short codes to the content for every single element they want to display …
Normally, this is not an issue … until you choose to change your layout (for example, move part of the content from box 3 into box 2, or replace the button inside box 1 from bright red to gold. 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 trying to create complex layouts, what you see on your editor screen may not be what you are going to get when your page goes live …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, some people argue that you may even be better off working directly inside the WordPress html editor tab instead of the visual editor when trying to add fancy page elements …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it hard for non-technical users to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental challenge of using shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress WYSIWYG editor can be summarized by asking two questions:
1) Speed – How long does it take to build a page using the 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, 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 translate mentally what the content will look like when working with complex layouts. Other solutions require taking multiple steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly going back and forth between tabs and performing tweaks and updates to see how your content is coming along, which then impacts how fast you can create your content, as you wait for the page to load.
A number of WordPress web developers have tried to come up with various solutions to try to make content editing easier. Some of these solutions 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 including so many page design features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these solutions work fine, but they still 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 your web content to look ”perfect” quickly, this can become quite frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your web page builder to function?
Now, imagine this …
- You look at your content and if you see something that needs to be corrected, simply click on the content and start editing it. Your content is then instantly fixed.
- You just drag and drop elements on the page, and see them exactly as they will appear on the front end without having to mentally visualize any HTML or shortcodes.
- You have an idea for a specific piece of content you would like to add, so you just start typing, and your web page gets built on the fly, without delays, no switching of tab browsers, and no waiting for edits to refresh and reload.
Would that not be the ideal way to build content for your site? A true WYSIWYG editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your posts and pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex web page layouts in real-time for your web content without technical constraints!)
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 & Drop Content And Landing Page Creation Tool
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a unique WordPress plugin that lets users easily build amazing content layout 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 speed up the process of adding great content to your WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor with an item menu that lets you select, then drag and drop design elements on your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new visual content builder to your WordPress site)
The Thrive Content Builder plugin is actually a combination of the Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages plugins combined into one, plus an additional plugin feature called Thrive Lightbox.
We will examine each of the above and how these exciting features work together to help you easily transform and improve your web site and create awesome marketing pages and content.
Thrive Content Builder – WordPress Plugin
With this plugin installed easily build complex web page design layouts using drag and drop elements …
Everything on your web page can be designed with “drag and drop” and “click-to-edit” ease …
Once elements have been positioned on your page, you can then easily customize these without going through multiple steps or switching tabs …
You can also work inside stunning landing pages that can just as easily be edited or customized …
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing pages with Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder installed is so effortlessly simple, that the developers warn that you will never look at the process of creating and adding content the same way once you start using it
More info: 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 recommended on this site.
See this article to read more about the plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up the process of creating content for your site:
Fast Installation
Thrive Content Builder is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP admin area and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Creation
Thrive Content Builder is is not only very simple and intuitive to use, it also lets you edit and add content to your web pages in real-time.
A Truly Visual Content Editor
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the content editor – typefaces, elements, 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 layout you can imagine with intuitive drag and drop functionality.
- Design Elements Included: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get a visually exciting click-to-edit content editor, but the plugin also includes a collection of professional web design elements that you can customizable and use on your content layouts without using shortcodes, for e.g.: pricing tables, content boxes, buttons, responsive video embeds, 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 steps to get what you need done.
(Add, edit and customize page elements like testimonial boxes, content toggle, table of contents builder, section dividers, responsive Google map embeds, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder offers site owners a number of features. Below we have listed just some of those:
- Regular WordPress Editor Functionality Is Preserved: You have access to all of the built-in text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold, left-aligned text, headings, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” list of elements to your post or page screen when creating or editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with various eye-catching and customizable elements that will help increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantee forms. In addition to customization options, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, text boxes, content dividers, e.g. which will display correctly on different screens.
- Add Animation To Your Web Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you insert animation in images, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Template Sets
Landing page template 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 provides you with conversion-optimized web page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time designing gorgeous web pages
- 100% conversion-optimized page templates
- No coding skills needed
- Works with any theme
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages not only lets you create beautiful-looking content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of beautifully designed, conversion optimized 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 over thirty templates available, with more templates being worked on. In addition to the existing templates, 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 Landing Page Template Sets
Typically, to be able to fully customize a landing page template, you would need to either hire a web developer to do the work, or learn web coding languages like HTML and CSS 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 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 beautiful pre-built web pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change and customize any aspect of your page template …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Change text in any headline, button, bullet point, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of your landing page
- Replace any background images or background colours
- Change the color of links, buttons, text, etc.
- Select your own fonts
- Use your own images
- Modify content area size
- Change the order of web page elements
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add custom content inside the pages
- Start with a blank web page and create your own page templates, or even build a custom landing pages library.
(Change or edit any aspect of the page)
Transform Your Site Into A Powerful Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox Plugin
The Thrive plugin combo also includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully configurable two-step opt-in forms and events to your WordPress site …
(Add lead capture forms and animation to your WordPress website with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-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 …
(Opt-in forms help to increase your conversion rates.)
Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make opt-in forms appear when your visitor clicks or hovers 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 attention-getting elements on your page, using a range of animation effects (e.g. zoom out, slide in from left to right, roll out, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your sales pages with Thrive Lightbox)
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 some testimonials plugin customers have published about the Thrive Content Builder plugin:
”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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”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. Note, however, that you cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content on pages or posts that were not created with the plugin.
You can add WordPress short codes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will be displayed correctly when published.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content you build using Thrive Content Builder.
Plugin Support
Thrive Content and Page Builder provides 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 well-supported, and users get unlimited software upgrades, and one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, thirty day, complete refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep 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 lets you set up the plugin on 1 website only. It includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This lets you install the plugin on unlimited sites that you own. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency License – Use on all your sites & on client domains. Includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Cost = $247.00 per year.
Please Note: Pricing for Thrive Content Builder depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was correct when this review was published. This may not be the actual price set 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 Information
The Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages 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 the time-saving benefits of ready-made web page elements and template sets 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 anything and everything on your page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that lets you get things done without having to open multiple dialog boxes.
For demo videos of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the plugin website.
Our Recommendation …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, do it, and you can see the change happen instantly. 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 marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, this plugin delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more information, visit the plugin website:
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