WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging application to a tool being used to design all types of pages – landing pages, product showcase pages, local business pages, etc.
Whatever you can think of, someone is most likely already building it with WordPress!
In this article you will discover the most intuitive visual content editor for WordPress.
Drag & Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Visual Editor – Is There A Smarter Way To Design Pages In WordPress?
Using the built-in WordPress WYSIWYG content editor to build or edit sophisticated page layouts can sometimes be difficult.
(The built-in WordPress editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding complex content elements can be challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the content shown below …
To create the above boxes with text and buttons, users would normally have to add short codes to the content for every single element they want to create …
Typically, this is not really an issue … until you need to change the layout (for example, move some of the content from box 1 into box 2, or replace the background colour in box 1 from dark green to orange. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress visual editor is supposed to give users an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, but as you can see, when working with complex layouts, often what you see in the visual editor may not be the same as 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 cases, users could even be better off working inside the WordPress html (text) editor tab instead of the visual editor when trying to build non-linear page elements …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it hard for non-technical website owners to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental issue of using shortcodes and HTML to create content in WordPress can be summarized by asking 2 questions:
1) Speed – How long does it take to create a web page using this 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 image, what you see in the editor does not look even remotely similar to what you see in the front end. This means that users have to abstract what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require taking several steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing updates to see how your content is progressing, which interrupts the creative process, as you wait for your updates to refresh.
Many WordPress developers have come up with various solutions to try and address this issue. These range from standalone plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that come with built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make creating complex content easier!)
Some solutions end up combining so many complex page design features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these editors work, but they don’t really seem to address the fundamental challenge 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 to create or edit complex layouts quickly, this can become very frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your web page editor to function?
Now, imagine the following …
- You look at your content and if you spot something that needs to be changed, simply click on the content and start editing it. Your content is then instantly edited.
- You just drag and drop elements around the page, and the page looks exactly as it will appear on the front end without having to mentally translate any shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for a specific item of content you’d like to create, so you immediately begin typing, and you build your web page on the fly, without delays, no switching of tab browsers, and without waiting for new web content to refresh.
Would this not be the ideal way to create content for your site? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your posts and pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex page layouts in real-time 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 And Landing Pages
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a revolutionary plugin for WordPress that lets website owners easily build and edit content on their posts and pages with true click-to-edit and drag and drop simplicity.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin is a new and exciting way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress web site.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor with an item menu that lets you click, then drag and drop design elements on your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content builder to WordPress)
The Thrive Content And Landing Page Builder plugin 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 each of the above plugins and how all of this powerful functionality works seamlessly together to help you transform and improve your web site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder – WordPress Plugin
This plugin lets you easily add complex design layouts to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every element on your page can be configured using ”click-to-edit” and “drag and drop” …
Once you have placed elements on your page, you can then easily edit these without having to go through multiple steps or switching tabs …
You can also build beautiful landing pages that can also be easily customized …
Thrive Content Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing pages with the Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages plugin installed is so amazingly simple, that the developers guarantee that you’ll never look at the process of creating and adding content the same way once you start using it
For more details, visit the plugin site here: 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 written about on this site.
See this post to read about this plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Thrive Content Builder installs just like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Edit And Add Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is is not only very simple and intuitive to use, it also lets you edit and add content to your pages in real-time.
What You See Is Exactly What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the editor – fonts, elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see on the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Stunning Page Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any kind of layout you can imagine with drag and drop ease.
- Customizable Elements Included: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get a visually exciting click-to-edit WordPress content builder, but the plugin also includes a very decent collection of design elements that you can use on your content layouts without using short codes, such as tabbed content, styled lists, page section dividers, responsive Google map embeds, etc.
- More Enjoyable Content Creation: Not having to constantly switch tabs as you edit your content and then wait for your content to reload frees up your attention and allows you to build the pages your business needs, quickly and without having to edit code or click through multiple steps to get what you want done.
(Insert, edit and customize page elements like testimonials, tabbed content, borderless content, page section dividers, responsive Google map embeds, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder provides many great features to website owners. Here are just some:
- Built-In WordPress Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have all of the built-in content editing options that you are used to (e.g. underline, paragraph formatting, heading styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” table of multi-style elements available on your post or page screen when creating or editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with a range of attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantees. In addition to customization options, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Add mobile-friendly columns, guarantee boxes, content section dividers, e.g. which will display great on different screens.
- Add Animation Events To Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you insert animations, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your 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 all the way from signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages provides you with conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time designing landing pages
- 100% conversion-optimized landing page templates
- No technical skills needed
- Works with all WordPress themes
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder 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, conversion optimized page templates and fully customizable …
(Landing page sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are 30+ templates available, with more templates scheduled for release. In addition to the templates shown above, the developers plan to release new page templates for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable Landing Page Template
Normally, in order to have a completely customizable landing page template, you would need to either pay 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 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 building 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 edit any element of the page templates …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you can do the following:
- Change text in any bullet point, button, headline, etc.
- Delete text, images or any other part of your landing page
- Change any background images and edit colors
- Edit the color of text, buttons, links, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Select your own images
- Edit content area size
- Rearrange the order of elements on the page
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add custom content in your pages
- Start with a blank web page and create your own page templates, or even build a custom landing page templates library.
(Change and edit any aspect of your page)
Transform Your WordPress Site Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive package also includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully configurable 2-step opt-in forms and events to your web site …
(Add opt-in forms and events to your marketing pages with Thrive Lightbox)
2-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-step opt-in process helps increase your conversion rates. Visitors click on a button or image, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(When visitors click on the button, they are presented with an opt-in form)
Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make opt-in forms appear when when visitors click or hover their mouse 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 attention-getting elements on your web pages, using various effects (e.g. zoom in, slide in from top to bottom, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress site with Thrive Lightbox)
A lightbox and event is created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over your events, triggers and design.
Testimonials From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials plugin customers have provided for 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”
***
“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 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.
You can add shortcodes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will be displayed correctly when published.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built with Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin Support
Thrive Content Builder comes with 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, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users that just keeps getting better.
Product 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 Edition – This option lets you set up the plugin on a single domain. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This option allows you to run the plugin on all websites that you personally own. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Licensing – Use on your web sites and on all your client websites. It includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Cost = $247.00 per year.
Please Note: Price details for the Thrive Content Builder product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was correct when this review was published. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the product 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 Information
The Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin developers 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 web page elements and beautiful, pre-designed templates that help to speed up the content creation process, and on the other hand, you also 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, which allows you to work unhindered by overly complicated options.
For ”how-to” videos of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive Content Builder website.
We Recommend …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you’ll see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, simply drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no overly complicated steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your web site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content and Page Builder delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
To learn more, visit the plugin website:
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