If you are looking to build an online business that is blog-centered, then there are certain tools you have to get to help you create a professional looking site that converts your traffic well.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s nearly impossible to create a successful online business without investing some money into it.

There are a few startup investments that you absolutely have to make if you want to start making money before the end of the decade, and Thrive Themes is one of those investments.

There are lots of tools to choose from out there, it makes your head spin just thinking about it!

OK, I may be overstating things a little, but you get my point. There is a lot to choose from, and everyone says their tool or plugin is the best. And you have to wade through loads of pros and cons…

If this sounds familiar, then this article is going to take away some of that worry by helping you to choose the best tool for creating a website that will stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Thrive Themes Membership is a no-brainer for all blog owners, new and old, and this article is going to show you why.

Top 3 Tools to Get Started Building Your Blog-based Business

You need only three basic tools to get started and these are:

• A Solid Web Hosting Service
• A Great Theme (and Landing Page Builder)
• A Reliable Email List Host

As previously stated, there are lots to chose from but from previous experience, I would recommend the following if you’re just starting out:

• SiteGround for Your Web Hosting
• Thrive Themes Membership for Your Theme and Landing Pages
• Aweber for Hosting Your Email List

So, back to Thrive Themes…

Some of you may be wondering, “Why not StudioPress or OptimizePress or any of the rest? And the answer is that most other tools on the market (the really great ones) aren’t as user-friendly as the ones I recommend here.

They are, technically speaking, over most bloggers’ heads, and if you’re just starting out, the last thing you need is a tool that has a huge learning curve.

You want to be up and running as soon as possible so you need to go with a tool that doesn’t have too much complexity for average blog owners.

After all, there is so much else to do, so you don’t want to be stuck in that first phase of building your business for months, do you?

So, if you’re not the ‘tech-savvy’ type, or if you don’t want to have to learn PHP or CSS skills to get your site looking and performing the way you want it to, then Thrive Themes is the best option for you (trust me, I’ve looked!)

Thrive Themes Vs. All The Others – Cost Comparison

‘Thrive Themes’ here refers to the entire suite of tools. There are several that you can use and to make it easier for you, they have been bundled into a simple ‘membership’ package.

The Thrive Themes package includes several proven themes that you can choose from, but it’s better to go with the Thrive Membership since this includes not only the selection of themes but also full access to the range of tools listed below.

Thrive Themes Membership Tools

• Thrive Architect: the main guts of the entire package
• Thrive Landing Pages: which you’ll use for all your landing and squeeze page creation
• Thrive Leads: arguably the most effective opt-in plugin for your WordPress site
• Thrive Ovation: for the collection and management of testimonials
• Thrive Ultimatum: which helps you use deadline timers on your site
• Thrive Headline Optimizer: to split-test your headlines in order to maximize traffic to your site
• Thrive Clever Widgets: helps you display various items in different spots in your sidebar
• Thrive Themes: the entire array of standard themes from Thrive
• Thrive Quiz Builder: the newest addition to help you create unique quizzes
• Thrive University: this is a pretty decent training site with tons of value, especially for newbies.

Now that you know what you’re getting, it’s time to consider the pricing.

Thrive Membership will cost you $19/month, paid annually. This works out to about $228 per year.

Before you balk at this, let’s take a look at all the tools you will never have to buy again:

• Each of the StudioPress themes will set you back at least $130 and if you desire them all, you have to fork out about $500.
• OptimizePress would cost you around $99, but to be honest, it will be a lot more work to build marketing-focused pages, and you would also need a different tool.
• An effective opt-in plugin would cost you extra.

For instance, OptinMonster is one of the best-performing ones out there, but if you want to get the version that compares to Thrive Leads then you’re looking at about $348/year. If OptimizePress is a little too ‘techy’ then a more user-friendly option would be Lead Pages or ClickFunnels, neither of which comes cheap. You are looking at a minimum of $297 each year.

So, as you can see, everything is adding up pretty quickly, isn’t it?

OptimizePress + StudioPress theme already costs as much as a Thrive Theme Membership, but you still have to get LeadPages or OptinMonster (which is a recurring fee).

Or…

You could go for the $228 plan where you get the entire Thrive suite of tools and be done once and for all. It’s way more cost-effective for bootstrapping entrepreneurs building their online business.

And the best part is that you get to say bye to all coding headaches.

One of the most troublesome issues that most online marketers have when building sites has to do with the parts that require diving into the realms of CSS, PHP, and HTML.

This is where Thrive Themes shines because it makes it so easy for even those who are tech-challenged to build sites.

You don’t need to write code for a single thing to get a beautiful, professional looking site.

The entire suite of tools including Thrive Themes, Thrive Landing Pages and Thrive Leads is based mainly on the Thrive Content Builder editor which makes it extremely easy to customize everything.

The great thing about Thrive Themes is that it can actually take over the standard WordPress blog post editor on your site which allows you to do all your stuff in a visual way.

It’s easy to get accustomed to the controls, and once you do, you will be able to quickly create professional web pages.

You can still use the Thrive Content Builder on your site even if your actual site theme is not a Thrive Theme.

This is something that you will appreciate if you already have your site up and running and want to improve certain aspects of it using Thrive tools without changing your entire theme.

Thrive Themes is Focused on Conversion

Conversion is the name of the game, and the thing that really makes the Thrive suite of tools stand out is their focus on conversion. With these tools, you’re not just creating ‘pretty’ themes, but you’re doing everything specifically to enhance your blog marketing.

Thrive understands that people are doing all of this to get leads and sales and their themes have built-in features which allow you to do all those things.

The newest addition to the Thrive arsenal of tools is the Thrive Quiz Builder which makes it easy to create unique online quizzes that can help you build viral traffic to your site or build up your email list of subscribers.

It’s long been proven that quizzes are extremely effective as list-building tools, but they typically require custom coding to create.

Thrive Quiz Builder helps you easily create quizzes that are geared toward boosting your list numbers because they understand that this is what you’re actually trying to do.

There are other things such as split testing the headlines of your blog post that are essential for marketers to do, and tools like SumoMe have options for it, but with a price of $288 per year, it’s not worth it, considering that you get the same features with Thrive Headline Optimizer as part of the whole set of tools that you get when you sign up for the Thrive Themes Membership.

While all these other tools are undeniably effective and do what they promise, the simple truth is that some of them are highly overpriced.

So, it’s better for those who are just beginning to get a tool that has everything you need all in one place, and all for one convenient price.

And Now, on to Support

This is among the most important things to look at when considering any particular online tool.

You need to be able to get help whenever you need it, especially if you’re using the tool for their first time. The Thrive team stands behind their products, and they are not afraid to offer reliable support.

They also issue updates constantly and they are ever adapting and improving their service, making everything more valuable to you.

I’m Not Trying To Become The Brochure For Thrive Themes…

But, in all honesty, this is a great set of tools that every online entrepreneur will appreciate.

My mission is to help you build a profitable business online and so that’s the main reason for this particular post.

Whatever stage of business you’re in right now – whether you’re in the ‘getting started’ phase and need to find the right tools for the job, or if you’ve been at this for a while and need to step up your game, I don’t want your tool hunting to end with you buying a bunch of useless things that you’ll never use.

I want you to get as much bang for your buck as possible, and that’s why I’m advocating these three products:

• A Solid Web Hosting Service – Siteground
• A Great Theme (and Landing Page Builder) – Thrive Themes
• A Reliable Email List Host – Aweber

I recommend Thrive Themes (especially for anyone who is just starting out) because it truly makes all other potential purchases that you may have to make completely unnecessary.

Thrive Themes Is Great For Creating Membership Sites

One of the best reasons why I particularly love Thrive Themes Membership is that it makes it extremely easy to create a membership site.

When choosing a membership site, here are a few things that you have to consider:

• Style: What type of website or membership site do you like?
• Page Layouts: What types of page layouts do you need for your membership site?
• Page Builders: You need an easy to use visual composer or page builder to create your web pages
• Incompatibilities: Make sure that you won’t experience clashes and conflict when dealing with code
• Responsiveness: Your site needs to be easily accessible and responsive on mobile or tablet
• Skill Level: You need a theme that requires a minimum amount of customization
• Support: You need a theme that has adequate and reliable support in place in case you experience issues

In Conclusion

Whether you’re just beginning or if you have been playing the ‘online marketing’ game for a while, this is a great set of tools to add to your arsenal of online marketing tools.

Thrive Themes not only provides you with all the tools you need for successful blog marketing in one place, but they also do so at an extremely affordable price.

Use this post as your guide when deciding which service to go with.

Weigh the pros and the cons to determine which tools are best for you and your business. Once you’ve made your decision, get started creating a professional, high-converting site that will help you compete.

Feel free to post your comment below. An email address is required but it will not be shared with anyone, put on any list, or used for any kind of marketing, just to alert you if there are any replies. Thanks and happy hunting!

PlanetBizOp.com

->Steven

Updated: Originally published August 20th 2018