WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool being used to design all types of web pages – marketing pages, product showcase pages, local business pages, etc.
Whatever you can think of, someone is most likely already building it with WordPress!
This article will help you discover the ultimate drag and drop front end visual content editor for WordPress sites.
Drag & Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Content Editor – Is There An Easier Way To Create Web Pages In WordPress?
Using the WordPress WYSIWYG content editor to create or edit sophisticated page layouts can be quite difficult.
(The built-in WordPress visual content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding more complex content elements can be quite challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the layout shown below …
To add the above boxes with text and buttons to a page would require typing something like this inside your default WordPress content editor …
Typically, this is not an issue … until you want to reconfigure the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or replace the button inside box 2 from dark green to some other color. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with code.
The WordPress visual content editor is supposed to give users an easy-to-use WYSIWYG content editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to add complex layouts, often what you see in the visual editor may not be what you are getting when your content is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, some people argue that users may even be better off working inside the WordPress text editor tab instead of the visual editor when trying to create fancy layouts …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it difficult for non-technical website owners to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental problem of having to use HTML and shortcodes to create content in the default WordPress editor can be summarized by asking 2 questions:
1) Speed – How long will it take to create a page using this editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the ”back end” match the “front end” content when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above, what you see when working in the back end looks nothing like 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 multiple steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching tabs and performing tweaks and updates to see how your content is progressing, which can interrupt the creative process, as you wait for your new content to refresh.
A number of WordPress web developers have tried to come up with a range of solutions with the goal of addressing this issue. These range from standalone 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 content easier!)
Some solutions end up including 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 really address the fundamental issue of using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Creating, 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 ”perfect” quickly, this can become very frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your page builder to behave?
Now, visualize this …
- You see something in the content that needs to be corrected so you, simply click on the content and start typing. Your content has been instantly changed.
- You just drag and drop elements around the page, and the page looks exactly as it will display on the front end without having to mentally visualize code.
- You have an idea for an item of content you would like to add, so you just start typing, and you build your web page as you go, without delays, with no switching tabs, and without waiting for pages to resave and reload.
Would that not be the perfect way to create content for your site? A true WYSIWYG editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the pages and posts?
(Imagine being able to create complex 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 Content Builder And Landing Pages – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content And Landing Page Creation Tool
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive click-to-edit drag and drop content creation plugin for WordPress.
Thrive Content Builder is a new and incredibly easy way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress website.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor with a sidebar menu that lets you drag and drop design elements on your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new visual content builder 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.
Let’s review each of the above plugins and how all of this powerful functionality works together to help you transform and improve your web presence and create amazing marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content Editing Plugin
Thrive Content Builder lets you easily add content to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Everything on your page can be built using ”click-to-edit” and “drag and drop” …
Once elements have been positioned on a page, you can continue to further customize them without going through multiple steps or opening extra settings screens …
The built-in Thrive Landing Pages also lets you create highly attractive landing pages and easily edit these …
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 the plugin installed is so amazingly simple, that the developers warn that you’ll never look back once you start using it
Learn more about the plugin here: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another great plugin we’ve previously reviewed on this site.
See this post to read more about this plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Installation Is Easy, Quick & Simple
Thrive Content Builder is really easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Real-Time Content Content Creation
Thrive Content Builder is is not only really simple to use, it also lets you build and add content to your web pages in real-time.
A Truly Visual Content Builder
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the content editor – fonts, elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see in the front end of your site.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Add Attractive Page Layouts With Drag And Drop Ease: Create any layout you can imagine with drag-and-drop ease.
- Customizable Elements Included: 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 very decent collection of customizable web design elements that you can add to your pages without using shortcodes, like pricing tables, text boxes, testimonials, responsive maps, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to wait for your updated content to load frees up your attention and allows you to build the content your business needs, quickly and without having to edit code or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Insert, edit and customize web page elements like testimonials, pricing tables, styled lists, buttons, Google Map embeds, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder provides site owners a number of features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Built-In Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the regular content editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold formatting, justified text, font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” list of multi-style elements to your post or page screen for creating and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin includes various attention-grabbing 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 being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Page Design: Add responsive elements like columns, boxes, section dividers, e.g. which will adjust to display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Web Pages: Thrive Content Builder’s Event Manager feature lets you insert animations, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Templates
Landing page sets are web page templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language to take your visitors all the way from initial 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 building professional landing pages for your WordPress site
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No web coding skills required
- Works with all WordPress themes
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder 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 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, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Customizable Landing Page Template
Typically, in order to fully customize a 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 overly 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 web page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change or customize anything on the page template …
The landing page template sets included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Edit text in all buttons, headlines, bullet points, etc.
- Delete text, images or any other component of the landing page
- Replace the background image or color
- Edit the color of links, buttons, text, etc.
- Select your own fonts
- Select your own images
- Change the size of the content area
- Change the order of web page elements
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add any kind of custom content inside the pages
- Use pre-designed, customized pages, or create your own web pages from scratch and save them as new page templates.
(Change and edit any aspect of your page)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Site Into A Marketing Machine
The Thrive plugin package includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully editable two-step opt-in forms and animated elements to your web site …
(Add opt-in forms and events to your WordPress website with Thrive Lightbox)
Thrive Lighbox 2-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process can help increase your conversion rates. When visitors click on a button or image they are presented with your opt-in form …
(Capture more leads and subscribers with a two-step opt-in process)
Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make an opt-in form appear when your visitor clicks or hovers over a button or an image, 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 various animation effects (e.g. fade in, slide in from bottom to top, roll out, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your web pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over all events, triggers and design.
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that customers have written about 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”
Useful 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 that was not created with the plugin installed.
You can add shortcodes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will be displayed correctly when published.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built with Thrive Content Builder.
Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages Plugin provides free updates, new landing templates and upcoming features. The Thrive team is constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive plugins are really well-supported, and users get unlimited software updates, plus one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users that will just keep 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 Licensing – This lets you set up the plugin on a single site. Price includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This option allows you to configure the plugin on unlimited domains that you personally own. Price includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Licensing – This allows you to install the plugin on all of your own web sites and your client websites. It includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: The cost to purchase the Thrive Content Builder product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the plugin sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Plugin Info
The developers of the Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin repeatedly 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 time-saving features like ready-made page elements and conversion-optimized template sets that help to speed up content creation, and on the other hand, you also have 100% control over the design process and the freedom to change anything and everything on your page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that allows you to see exactly how the content you are working on will look after being published.
For a demo video of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the plugin website.
Download This Plugin …
If you want to edit something, you just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you will see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, just drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no additional steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your business online and create amazing marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more information, check out the plugin here:
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