WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool into a tool that is now used to create all kinds of websites.
Whatever you can think of, someone is most likely already building it with WordPress!
In this article you will discover the ultimate click-to-edit front end builder for WordPress web sites.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Content Editor – Is There An Easier Option For Creating Beautiful-Looking Content In WordPress?
With all the rapid advancements that WordPress has gone through in recent years, many WordPress users and developers believe that the WordPress editor is more suitable for performing simple content editing than creating and editing content elements within complex layouts.
(The WordPress visual content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional content, but adding complex page elements can be challenging!)
For example, if you look at the illustration below …
To create the above boxes with text and buttons, you would normally need to insert short codes into your content for each of the page elements you want to create …
Normally, this is not an issue … unless you want to change the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 3 into box 2, or change the button in box 2 from green to light green. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code or html.
The WordPress 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 trying to create complex layouts, often what you see may not be the same as what you are getting when the web page gets published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, users could be better off working inside the WordPress html editor tab instead of the visual editor when trying to build non-linear page elements …
Even though WordPress is very user-friendly, this makes it hard for non-technical website owners to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental challenge with using shortcodes and HTML to create content with WordPress can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long does it take to build a 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 screenshot, what you see when working in the editor doesn’t look even remotely similar to what you see in the front end. This means that users have to translate mentally what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require taking multiple steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing updates to see how your content is coming along, which can interrupt the creative process, as you wait for the updated content to load.
Many WordPress web developers have tried to come up with different solutions with the aim of addressing this issue. These solutions range from stand alone WordPress plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to WP themes that offer 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 page-building features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these alternative editors work, but they still fail to address the fundamental challenge of using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Adding and editing 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 content to look “just right” quickly, this can become really frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your web pages?
Now that you’ve asked this question, imagine this …
- You see something in the content that needs fixing so you, simply click on the content and start writing. Your content has been instantly fixed.
- You can drag and drop elements on the page, and see them exactly as they will display on the front end without having to mentally visualize any code.
- You have an idea for a specific item of content that you would like to create, so you just begin typing, and you build your web page as you go, with no delays, without switching of tab browsers, and without waiting for web pages to resave and reload.
Would this not be the ideal way to create content for your WordPress website? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the posts and pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex web page layouts 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 Plugin – Create Stunning Content And Beautiful Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease In WordPress Web Sites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive WordPress click-to-edit drag and drop content creation plugin.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin provides WordPress users with a new and incredibly easy way to speed up the process of adding great content to WordPress sites.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor with an item menu that lets you drag and drop design elements on your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editor to WordPress)
Thrive Content Builder And Landing Pages 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 take an in-depth look at each of the above plugins and how these features work together to help you transform and improve your business online and create awesome sales pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin For WordPress
Thrive Content Builder lets you easily add content to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every aspect of your page can be built, changed and repositioned by dragging and dropping things around the page and then clicking to edit them …
Once elements have been added to your page, you can then continue to customize or edit these without going through additional steps or switching tabs …
You can also build stunning landing pages and easily customize these …
Thrive Content Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, working on content with the plugin installed is so amazingly easy, that the developers warn that once you start using it, you’ll never look back!
Go here to learn more about the plugin: 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 reviewed on this site.
To learn more about the plugin, go here:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Content Builder And Landing Pages
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Fast And Simple To Install And Configure. Ready To Start Using In Very Little Time.
Thrive Content Builder is really easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin user login and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Creation
Thrive Content Builder is is not only simple and intuitive to use, it also lets you edit content in real-time.
A Truly Visual Content Editor
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the editor – typefaces, visual elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see on the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Eye-Catching Layouts With Drag And Drop Ease: Create any type of layout you can imagine with drag and drop ease.
- Add Design Elements With No Short Codes Required: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get an exciting and simple-to-use drag and drop content editor, but the plugin also includes a collection of design elements that you can use on your content layouts without using short codes, for e.g.: pricing tables, borderless content, page section dividers, responsive Google map embeds, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to constantly switch tabs as you edit your content and then wait for the 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 need done.
(Thrive Content Builder lets you easily create, edit and customize web page elements like testimonial boxes, flat design elements, table of contents builder, call to action buttons, HTML code insert boxes, etc.)
Plugin Features
Thrive Content Builder provides WordPress users a number of great features. Here are just a few of these:
- Built-In WordPress Content Functionality Is Preserved: You have all of the regular text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold, centering text, font styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Multi-Style Elements Menu: 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 provides you with a range of attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help you increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantee forms. In addition to customization options, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Responsive Element Design: Add mobile-friendly columns, text boxes, dividers, e.g. which will resize and display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Pages: Thrive Content Builder’s Event Manager feature lets you insert animated page content, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Landing Page Sets
Landing page sets are 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 gives you access to conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money designing and customizing landing pages
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No technical skills required
- Works with all themes
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages not only can be used to create beautiful content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of beautifully designed, 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 30+ templates available, with more templates scheduled for future release. In addition to the available templates, the developers plan to release new templates for email lead generation, sales pages, lesson pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable And Flexible Landing Page Template Sets
Typically, to be able to have fully customizable landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web site 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 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 beautiful pre-built page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change and edit any aspect of your page …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you can do the following:
- Modify text in any headline, button, bullet point, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Change any background images or colours
- Edit the color of links, buttons, text, etc.
- Use your own fonts
- Select your own images
- Modify content area size
- Rearrange the order of web page elements
- Translate everything on the page into a different language
- Add any type of custom content anywhere inside your pages
- Use pre-designed, customized pages, or create your own landing pages from scratch and save them as new web page templates.
(Change and customize any element of your page)
Transform Your Site Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive plugin package also includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully editable 2-step opt-in forms and animated elements to your content pages …
(Add opt-in forms and events to your web pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process helps increase your conversion rates. When visitors click on a button or image 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 over a button or graphic elements, or when someone reaches 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. zoom out, slide in from right to left, roll out, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your web pages 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 From Plugin Users
Below are just a few of the testimonials customers have provided for the Thrive Content Builder plugin:
”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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“I’m blown away by the plugin. Keep up the incredible, WordPress changing work, guys! Dean Phillips”
Thrive Content Builder – Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any theme in WordPress, not just with Thrive Landing Pages. You cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content that was not created using the plugin.
You can add short codes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will be displayed correctly on your website.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built using Thrive Content Builder.
Support
Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder 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 very well-supported, and users get unlimited upgrades, and one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product that just keeps getting better.
Product 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 Licensing – This enables you to configure the plugin on a single web site. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This license lets you use the plugin on unlimited sites that you own. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency License Edition – This option allows you to set up the plugin on all of your own sites and any client websites. Includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Cost = $247.00 per year.
Note: Price details for the Thrive Content Builder software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was correct at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the product developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
The developers of the Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages plugin 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 the time-saving benefits of ready-made page elements and conversion-optimized template sets that help to speed up your content creation, and on the other hand, you also have 100% control over the design process and the freedom to change and customize anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, which allows you to get things done without having to keep switching tabs or going through multiple steps.
For demo videos of the plugin in action, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive website.
Install This 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 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 site and create amazing sales 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 full details, visit the plugin website:
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