An Essential WordPress Plugin for Writers
Having a website is critical for writers. Of course, once you've made the decision to create a website then comes all of the annoying decisions. Should it be just a website? Should it be just a blog? Should it be both? Should I hire a designer or do it myself? If I do it myself, what software should I use? All of these decisions can be frustrating to make and I'm not here to answer all of them, but the Thrive Content Builder WordPress Plugin I recently discovered makes most of these choices easier.
First, a couple of disclaimers. I am in no way paid or otherwise compensated by Thrive Themes for writing this post. Second, this plugin is not free. It is going to run you $59 and another $49 if you decide to use one of their themes.
Now that I've got that out of the way, if you're stuck in the middle somewhere between technophobe and programmer like me, with Thrive Content Builder the decision to create your own site versus paying someone else is a no-brainer. Website or blog? Again -- no-brainer, because with Thrive Content Builder you can easily create a landing page that changes your wordpress blog into a website. You can then use this attractive landing page to advertise your latest book or project and have a separate menu option for your blog which will be formatted like a blog.
So what's so special about this plugin? In addition to allowing you to create great landing pages, it completely changes the post editor in wordpress. Instead of being confined to a little box, alternating between the post editor and preview, you create your post in preview mode. You get to see what your post looks like as you write it. Do you want to insert a picture into your blog post? Now you don't have to waste time trying to get the size just right, looking up html shortcode online so your image is aligned properly. Nope, just drop your picture where you want it.
As you can tell, columns are no problem either. I specifically wrote all of the above text in columns and put in these random images just to show how easy it is to do. I didn't have to edit a lick of code to do it either.
Thrive Themes' primary focus appears to be helping entrepreneurs generate leads and create mailing lists. Even though writers aren't necessarily their target audience , many of these sales features translate well for writers, because deep down we are essentially selling products. This plugin allows you to easily put email signups pretty much anywhere. Do you have something free to give website visitors? Maybe the first book in your series or a preview of your new book. Thrive Content Builder can help you with that too.
Clearly there are many more things you can do with this plugin and to be honest I'm not savvy enough to display them all. I'm still learning all of the wonderful things this plugin and theme can do (I bought one of their themes too), but if you are a writer, especially one who uses WordPress and has been frustrated with your theme's limitations, Thrive Content Builder can help. Alright, I'm done with my accolades. I'll let you hear the sales pitch straight from the horse's mouth.
