WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool into a tool that is now being used to design all types of web pages – marketing pages, product showcase pages, business pages, etc.
Whatever you can imagine, someone is bound to be already building it using WordPress!
In this article you will discover the simplest way to build stunning content in WordPress web sites.
Drag & Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Is The Default WordPress Editor Still Meeting All Of Your Content Creation Needs?
Using the WordPress editor to build or edit sophisticated page layouts can sometimes be quite challenging.
(The default WordPress editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding complex layouts can be quite challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the content shown below …
Adding the above to your content would require inserting something like this inside your WordPress visual editor …
Normally, this is not an issue … until you need to edit an integral aspect of your layout (for example, move part of the content from box 1 into box 2, or change the background colour in a box from green to blue. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress visual content editor is supposed to provide non-technical users with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, but as you can see, if you are working with complex layouts, what you see in the WordPress visual editor screen may not be the same as what you are getting when your page is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some instances, some people argue that users could even be better off working directly inside the html (text) editor tab instead of the WordPress WYSIWYG editor when trying to add non-linear layouts …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it hard for non-technical website owners to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental problem of having to use shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress editor can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long will it take to build a web page using this editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the ”back end” match the content in the “front end” when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above image, what you see when working in the editor looks nothing like what you see in the front end. This means that you need to abstract what your content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require taking several steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing updates to see how your content is progressing, which then affects how quickly you can create your content, as you wait for pages to load.
Many WordPress web developers have come up with various solutions to address this issue. Some of these range from standalone plugins you can add to your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that provide built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make content creation easier!)
Some solutions include so many page design features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these 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 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 page content to look “just right” quickly, this can become very frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your content builder to function?
Now, imagine the following scenario …
- You look at your content and if you spot something that needs correction, just click on the content and start editing it. Your content has been instantly edited.
- You simply drag and drop items around the page, and the page looks exactly as it will display on the front end without having to mentally translate any code.
- You have an idea for a specific item of content that you’d like to create, so you simply begin typing, and you build your web page on the fly, without delays, no tab switching, and without waiting for new web content to republish and reload.
Would that not be the ideal way to create content for your website? A true visual content editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around the posts and pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex web pages in real-time 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 Landing Pages And Content Builder
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a unique plugin for WordPress that allows users to quickly add amazing content to WordPress posts and pages using a truly visual click-to-edit and drag and drop content editor.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin provides WordPress users with a new and exciting way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress site.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor with an item menu that lets you drag and drop design elements to your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new editor to WordPress)
Thrive 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.
Let’s review all of the above plugins and how all of this functionality works seamlessly together to help you transform and improve your web site and create amazing sales pages and content.
Thrive Content Builder For WordPress
Thrive Content Builder lets you easily add content to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every element of your web page can be built using ”click-to-edit” and “drag and drop” …
Once elements have been added to the page, you can continue to further customize or edit these without going through multiple steps or switching tabs …
You can also create beautiful landing pages that can also be easily edited …
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages 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 effortlessly simple, that the developers warn that once you start using it, you’ll never look back!
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 we’ve recommended on this site.
To read about this plugin, go here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up your page design and content creation process:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
Thrive Content Builder is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin account and activate.
Real-Time Content Building And Editing
Thrive Content Builder is is not only really simple to use, it also lets you create and edit content in real-time.
A Truly Visual Content Builder
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “back end” as you work within the editor – typefaces, visual elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what you get on the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits of using this plugin include:
- Add Beautiful Page Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease: Create any type of layout you can imagine with drag-and-drop ease.
- Add Customizable Elements With No Short Codes Involved: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get a visually exciting drag and drop content builder, but the plugin also includes a collection of functional and attractive design elements that you can use on your web pages without using shortcodes, for e.g.: flat design elements, borderless content, buttons, countdown timers, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to constantly switch tabs as you tweak your content and then wait for the new content to refresh 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 steps to get what you need done.
(Easily insert, edit and customize web page elements like testimonial boxes, flat design elements, star ratings for review pages, dividers, HTML code insert boxes, etc.)
Plugin Features
Thrive Content Builder offers WordPress users a number of features. Below we have listed just some of those features:
- Built-In WordPress Editor Functionality Is Preserved: You have all of the built-in text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold formatting, paragraph formatting, heading styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Multi-Style Elements: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” table of multi-style elements to your post or page screen when creating or editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin comes with various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help increase your sales conversions, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantee forms. In addition to being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, guarantee boxes, section dividers, e.g. which will adjust to display correctly on different device screens.
- Add Animation To Your Web Pages: The Event Manager feature lets you add animated buttons, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Sets
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 signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages plugin gives you access to conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time building and customizing landing pages for your WordPress site
- 100% conversion-optimized landing page templates
- No technical skills needed
- Works with all themes
Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder not only lets you create beautiful content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of beautifully designed, conversion optimized web page templates and fully customizable …
(Landing page template sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are over thirty templates available, with more templates planned for future release. In addition to the templates that are currently available, the developers plan to release new page templates for email lead generation, sales pages, lesson pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable And Flexible Landing Page Template
Typically, in order to fully customize landing page templates, you would need to either pay a web site developer to do the work, or learn web coding languages like HTML and CSS 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 mess around with 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 building conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you beautiful pre-built pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change and customize anything on your page template …
The landing page templates included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Change text in any button, headline, bullet point, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other element of the landing page
- Change any background images and edit color
- Change the color of text, links, buttons, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Select your own images and graphics
- Change content area size
- Rearrange the order of elements on the page
- Translate pages into a different language
- Add any kind of custom content anywhere inside the pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own page templates, or even build a library of custom landing pages.
(Change or customize anything on the page template)
Transform Your WordPress Site Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive plugin package includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully configurable 2-step opt-in forms and animated elements to your WordPress site …
(Add lead capture forms and animation to your marketing pages with Thrive Lightbox)
2-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-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 can help improve your conversion rates.)
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 an image, or when someone reaches a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate images on your page, using a range of animation effects (e.g. zoom in from the page center, slide in from top to bottom, rotate, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your marketing pages 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.
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted for Thrive Content Builder:
“I have had nothing but the best experience imaginable with this tool since I purchased it. This is by far one of, if not the best plug-in I have purchase to date and it has definitely made working with WordPress a whole new experience. Jim Bond”
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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 on pages or posts that were not created with the plugin.
You can add short codes 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.
Plugin Support
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder comes with free updates, new landing templates and upcoming features. The plugin developers are constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive software is really well-supported, and users get unlimited updates, and one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, thirty day, full refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that just keeps getting better.
Plugin Cost
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 activate the plugin on a single site. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This option allows you to activate the plugin on all of your personal web sites. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency License – Use on your web sites and on all your client domains. 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 above reflects the price at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
The developers of the Thrive Content and Landing Page 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 the time-saving benefits of ready-made page elements and templates that help speed up your content creation, and on the other hand, you also have complete control over the design process and the freedom to edit and customize anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that allows you to see how the content you are working on will appear when published.
For demo videos of the plugin in action, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive plugins website.
We Highly Recommend This …
If you want to edit something, simply 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, all you have to do is drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no extra steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your web site 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 full details, visit the plugin website here:
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