Thrive Themes Membership Review
What is Thrive Themes Membership: Thrive Themes Membership is a suite of eleven premium conversion focused plugins for WordPress.
Each plugin has been developed for the needs of the Solopreneur in mind with advanced features for lead generation and conversion optimisation site wide.
In this review I'll be giving you a rundown of each plugin, what it's capable of, what's good, what's bad, and my honest thoughts (for what that's worth...).
Effectiveness
Extremely effective
Price
Very affordable
Ease of use
Simple and very easy to use
Support
Support offered only through tickets
Summary: Thrive Themes Membership is an all in one suite of plugins for anyone looking to optimise their website for conversions.
11 Premium WordPress Plugins in one
Thrive Themes Membership is a subscription service which gives you access to 11 premium plugins in one.
Here's what you get:
Thrive Theme Builder
Summary: A fully customisable, drag and drop WordPress theme built from the the ground up for conversions.
To my knowledge, this is the first 100% completely customisable, drag and drop WordPress theme in existence.
But what does that mean in reality?
It means that every page, every section, every header, footer, EVERYTHING can be customised - and optimised - to convert traffic into paying customers.
Complete flexibility, and control over every aspect of your site.
This is the sort of stuff that in the past would have cost thousands of dollars in developer costs, yet now, even a relative novice can do it.
No coding skills required!
A website built to convert
The purpose of a website is to get visitors to take a specific action/s.
That might be to sign up to your mailing list, buy a product, leave a comment, share your article...
Any number of things.
And it's your job to make that process as frictionless and simple as possible.
Here's just a quick sample of the types of customisations you can do with Thrive Theme Builder:
Homepage
Here's what my homepage looks like. Multiple calls to action to convert new visitors into email subscribers.
Blog Pages
It's really easy to create fully optimised blog pages with multiple different calls to action, at multiple different levels.
In post links are great ways to direct visitors to high converting pages.
Content upgrades are a great way of converting cold traffic into new subscribers too. And whilst you're there, why not try and increase your reach on social media too.
Footer
The footer can be optimised for conversions too.
Simply changing this styling of the footer section as a template will display it site wide - across every page.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
I can't get enough of this tool.
A tool like this can take you from a dude that can throw together a pretty shitty little site, into a fully fledged website designer without writing a single line of code.
In my opinion, if you're using any other theme to build your WordPress site, you're doing it wrong.
Thrive Theme Builder Single Licence $97 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Apprentice
Summary: A highly customisable online course building plugin for WordPress that allows you to sell your online courses directly from your website - without the costly expense of third party fully-hosted alternatives.
Up until recently, building an online course on WordPress has been a woeful experience.
With complex, ugly course builders like LearnDash and LearnPress, building a slick premium online course has been virtually impossible.
That was until Thrive Apprentice came along...
Adding Thrive Apprentice to your website will turn it into a fully fledged info-product marketplace.
How it works [in a nutshell]
Thrive Apprentice is a light-weight online course creator that is designed to create beautiful online courses, FAST!
Below is an example of one of what the interface looks like under the hood inside a digital course built with Thrive Architect.
The backend interface is also pretty damn straight forward and intuitive too.
It's not the most complex, feature rich tool for building online courses you'll ever get by a long shot, and it is missing a few key features that could be deal breakers for some.
Things like drip fed content, in course upgrades, etc.
But, and this is a big but...
It gets the job done, and it's very, very cheap.
So, if you're already turning over upwards of $3000 per month from the sales of your digital courses then you can probably afford to invest in premium online course software like Thinkific or Teachable.
But, if you're just starting out and want to get the job done with minimum outlay then I really do think that Thrive Apprentice is a very worthy tool for the job.
*I cover it in much more detail in my in-depth review of Thrive Apprentice here
My verdict - for what it's worth...
Hosting your own online course on WordPress doesn't come without it's complexities and limitations. And although not perfect, I think Thrive Apprentice can be a good option for three reasons.
- It's incredibly flexible
Thrive Apprentice Single Licence $67 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Leads
Summary: A feature rich, infinitely flexible lead generation tool.
You've heard it before, but I'm going to say it again...
"Building your email list is essential to making money online".
In fact did you know that 80% of the visitors to your website will NEVER return?
That's right, 80%!
So, you've done all the hard work. You've created amazing content, you've got your hands dirty and driven traffic to your website, yet, the vast majority of you're traffic will never return.
Unless...
You capture their email addresses!
That's why it's important, and that's why I wanted to introduce you to Thrive Leads.
In my experience, Thrive Leads is the best lead generation plugin for WordPress by a country mile.
Opt-in form types - 10 High converting form types to choose from
Out of the box it comes with ten unique opt-in form types that you can customise until your hearts content.
Lets take a closer look at each of the form types.
Light-box
An un-blockable, attention-grabbing Pop-up form designed to force visitors to take an action.
Inline forms
Opt-in forms that sit inside your content, designed to interrupt the visitors reader flow as their reading your content.
Multi-step opt-in forms
2-Step Opt-in forms trigger a lightbox pop-up upon clicking a call to action. Great for keeping your content clutter free, yet still conversion focused.
Ribbons
Easily add "Sticky Ribbons" to any page on your site.
Slide-in forms
An un-obtrusive way to grab your users attention.
Opt-in widget
Create custom sidebar and footer widgets in a few clicks.
Screen filler overlay
Proven to be the highest converting of them all, the screen filler overlay literally takes over the users screen. The best way to grow your subscriber list.
Content lock
Lock premium content behind an opt-in form. I've used content locks to great effect in the past. One of my favorites for sure.
Scroll matt
Similar to the 'screen filler/ the scroll mat populates the users entire screen.
Yes/No multi choice forms
Multi-choice forms add an extra step to your forms (you can actually create as many steps as you like). A great way to increase the investment from the user. The more invested they are, the more likely they are to part with their email address.
Conversion metrics - Analysing the stats
Having all of these opt-in forms working their magic on your website will boost your conversion rates dramatically.
But...
That's not all.
The real power lies within the analytics suite.
From your Thrive Leads analytics dashboard you can measure specific conversion metrics for each and every opt-in form on your site.
On top of that, Thrive Leads comes with built-in A/B split testing capabilities for every form type.
So, if you're serious about building your list and you actually utilise all of the features at your disposal with a tool like this, you'll see your conversion rates sky-rocket.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
Thrive Leads is the best lead generation plugin for WordPress by a country mile. It's not even close in my opinion.
For where I'm at right now, I wouldn't even consider using anything else.
Thrive Leads Single Licence $67 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Architect
Summary: Drag and drop page builder for WordPress.
Squeeze pages, landing pages, sales pages, blog posts, webinar pages...
...in-fact, any page you want to build is made crazy simple with Thrive Architect.
If coding ain't your thing (it's definitely not mine), then a page builder is an essential piece of kit for making top-notch professional, mobile responsive pages.
I've used a tonne of different page builders in my time like Elementor, Divi, WP Bakery, etc. and their all good in their own right. However, what sets Thrive Architect apart from the others in this area is its ease of use, the degree of flexibility (you can literally alter every aspect of the page), and how intuitive it is.
With Thrive Architect you can literally build ANY style of page you want.
If you've found a page you like from another site you want to replicate, then no worries, you'll be able to build it yourself in a matter of minutes.
It really is that simple.
Oh, and one more thing...
As a bit of a side-note, a lot of the page builders for WordPress create flabby code that bloats out your website, slowing down the page load times. This ain't cool.
Thrive Architect is a bit different.
Because all of the Thrive products are built by marketers, for marketers, all these fine details seem to get addressed. That's why pages built with Thrive Architect load blazing fast and won't slow your site down to a halt.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
WordPress without a drag and drop page builder is like trying to create a piece of fine art with crayons.
The end result is crap!
Sure, there are a few competitors that give it a run for it's money in this space (most notably Elementor & Divi), but I still think it stands out as the winner.
And, with constant (literally weekly) updates, it just keeps getting better.
Thrive Architect Single Licence $67 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Ultimatum
Summary: Time-locked scarcity marketing campaign tool for building evergreen sales funnels.
I'd been looking for a product like this for a couple of years before I stumbled upon it.
Let me unravel it a little for you...
Thrive Ultimatum is an incredible tool for building scarcity and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) into you all of your marketing efforts.
“Every time you promote something, you want to make sure there is urgency built in.
We all know it's human nature to take our time and kind of stay on the fence as long as we can. You want to make sure your audience knows it's GO time!"
Amy Porterfield
With Thrive Ultimatum you can create countdown timers for all of your promotions/campaigns eg. Product launch, premium content access, product discounts, Webinar registrations. Literally, anything you can think of.
It's called 'Scarcity Marketing'.
But here's the really powerful bit.
You can actually create what's known as "Evergreen Campaigns" with Thrive Ultimatum.
Let me explain.
An "Evergreen Campaign" is a campaign/promotion that never stops, it runs continuously.
But, you probably don't want to offer a 50% discount on your products/services all the time, you might just want to offer it to your users once.
So how does that work?
That's where the 'Lockdown' feature comes in. Using this function every visitor to your site has their own customised experience with your 'Scarcity' campaigns.
Each new visitor will experience your countdowns as if they were a regular countdown with a fixed end date. And, the Lockdown feature stays true even if your user clears their cookies, uses a different browser, or even a different device altogether.
So here's what Thrive Ultimatum can help you achieve:
Countdown timers can be displayed in a heap of different locations around your site too - Sidebar widget, floating header bar, floating footer bar, etc.
In fact, you can pretty much display your countdowns anywhere with the use of short-codes (a Shortcode is a tiny piece of code that will display your countdown timer within any page).
As with all of the Thrive Plugins it also comes with built in analytics to track your conversion metrics
I love it because it forces people to make a decision. No longer can they just be passive observers to your offers.
As the name suggests, they have an ultimatum.
Either they take your offer, or not.
And as we all know, the fear of missing out is real. And that's what makes this plugin so powerful.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
This tool is technical, advanced and extremely powerful.
But with that, comes a technical barrier to overcome in order to get things set up perfectly.
This is not probably a tool I'd be recommending to someone just starting out (because it can be a little complicated to set up at times), but if you're relatively tech savvy you're going to have a lot of fun with this, that's for sure.
Thrive Ultimatum Single Licence $97 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Headline Optimizer
Summary: Helps to optimize the headlines of your articles to increase click through rate.
If you didn't know how important your headlines are, check this out:
"On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar."
Confessions of an Advertising Man.
Most people spend hours creating detailed 2000+ word posts, with images, quotes and links, yet only give a moments thought to their headline. This is an enormous waste.
Since 80% of people will only ever read your headline (and NEVER see your copy), this is something that you need to pay extra special attention to.
Good headlines get attention. Good headlines get clicks.
Headlines determine the success or failure of your content, more than any other factor.
What is Thrive Headline Optimzer and how can it help?
It's impossible to know what headline is going to be a winner. Simply relying on your gut feeling is simply not going to work.
You've got to use a more calculated approach.
Do you know what the guys like Huffington Post, Buzzfeed etc. do to make such compelling headlines that go viral?
They split test the heck out of them.
What does that mean?
It means they create multiple headlines for EVERY article they post, and they measure how effective each headline performs against its competition.
The only way to find real, winning headlines is to test.
This is what the top guys in the industry are doing, and it's why they are dominating. They are continually testing, and continually winning.
And that is exactly what Thrive Headline Optimiser is built to help you do.
Test, test and re-test
Thrive Headline Optimizer plugs easily into your WordPress site and lets you test against a number of crucial different metrics:
In addition to this, it's also tracking click throughs on your blog posts, featured posts/recent posts etc.
Even small improvements on any of these metrics will reduce bounce rate and increase visitor engagement.
Getting set up is easy too.
Once it's installed, simply craft a selection of different competing headlines and you're ready to go.
The performance tracking will measure your results and will automatically start displaying the best performing headline.
It really is so easy, that you can set it and forget it.
When you're a time-strapped Solopreneur you need all the help you can get. And a full-time headline optimization specialist that's working 24/7, is worth its weight in gold.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
Headlines have a big impact on the click through rates of your articles, and for that reason they're super important.
But, in order to get meaningful data and really extract the full value of a headline optimisation tool like this, you need to have a steady flow of traffic.
For that reason, if you're just starting out, you can probably do without this as a tool in your arsenal, however if you're more established and have decent amount of traffic already, then this tool will likely prove very valuable.
Thrive Headline Optimizer Licence $67 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Quiz Builder
Summary: Conversion focused quiz builder plugin for WordPress.
Quiz builders are all the rage with online marketers right now.
Why?
Because they convert like crazy!
In fact, online quizzes are one of the best ways to generate leads on planet.
Let me explain.
An online quiz leads your users through a series of predefined questions. Each step of the way the user adds more information, each time increasing their investment in the outcome, making them far more likely to convert.
It's this increased investment that can sky rocket your conversion rates.
Online marketing gurus like Neil Patel and Russel Brunson are using online quizzes to great effect. Both regularly getting 10%+ conversion rates on their campaigns.
This is the power of online quizzes.
There are a few competing plugins that do a great job, one in particular LeadQuizzes which does an awesome job too. However, the biggest difference between Thrive Quiz Builder and the rest is the price. As part of the Thrive Membership it's a total steal.
Build complex quizzes [with zero coding skills]
There's a lot more to creating a good quiz than meets the eye.
Sure, if you just want to knock up a basic quiz that's fine. You can do that in a couple of seconds with any of these free quiz plugins.
However, if you're looking to introduce a bit of branching logic into your quizzes, then I think you'll be really impressed with Thrive Quiz Builder.
Branching logic is where you ask different questions based on the previous answer.
The hidden power of website quizzes
Sure quizzes are fun, and they're proven to convert. But, there's something going on beneath the surface, even more powerful than lead generation.
Want to know what it is?
Customer insights and segmentation.
Let me add a little clarity...
As your users meander through the different logic branches of your quiz, each step of the way they're disclosing valuable data.
It basically gives you the opportunity to direct each of your new leads through a detailed questionnaire, uncovering all of their pain points, wants, needs and desires.
It's the perfect tool for creating an insanely optimised segmentation of your audience.
Once you've collected all the data, you just got to give them what they want.
Quiz page split testing
As you've probably come to expect by now, once again this plugin has A/B split test built in.
Split testing your quiz page designs, questions, images, colours etc. will have a direct impact on your conversion rates. A/B testing like this is definitely not an industry norm, it's a full professional grade feature which comes as standard, which is pretty crazy if you ask me.
To learn more, go check out my in depth Thrive Quiz Builder review here.
Anyway, enough about online quizzes, you've got the picture.
On the the next plugin.
My verdict
I love quizzes as a lead gen tool, and so far as quiz builders go, this one is certainly up there.
It's clever, intuitive, flexible and powerful to boot, and it integrates with my favourite email marketing software Active Campaign.
For the price, you won't find better.
Thrive Quiz Builder Licence $67 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Comments
Summary: Replaces WordPress standard comments section with gamified, engagement focused alternative.
You write an epic blog post and send it out to the world, and your readers love it.
In fact, they love it so much that they want to let you know. They may even want to express their pain points and how you've helped them, or they may just want to say thanks.
Either way, these are likely some of your most engaged readers.
And what do they get in return?
"Your comment is pending approval".
That's it? Is that really the best you can do?
It sucks right? And it leaves so much value still on the table.
Thrive Comments are kind of ahead of the curve on this one and they've built an awesome commenting plugin with some killer features that'll increase engagement, conversions, and social shares.
What does Thrive Comments actually do?
Well, it replaces your ugly default WordPress comments section for starters, with an interactive comments section that's feature packed.
Thrive Comments allows for:
These are many of the features that make sites like Facebook, Reddit and Quora so popular and 'sticky'.
They make engaging fun, by 'gamifying' the whole process.
We all know what it's like to post on Facebook and anxiously wait for likes and comments. It kind of just makes you feel good.
And now, your users are starting to feel good about their interactions with your content, and they'll be more inclined to engage again in the future.
The special sauce...
Having a sexy looking interactive comments section is rad and all, but there's more...
Here's that special sauce I was talking about:
- Re-direct users to a specific url (could be a squeeze page, sales page, sign-up page).
That's some special sauce right there.
And that's not all.
You can even reward new commenters with 'welcome messages' or free gifts etc.
Now you're starting to build a real community!
Comment moderation [and reporting]
Thrive Comments has two separate reporting areas. One for performance and analytics, the other for comments and moderation.
The analytics section helps you aggregate all of the different data points of each and every post on your site.
Stuff like:
Armed with data like this, you can begin to start creating more content that your audience actually wants. That's the sign of a successful blog right there.
And, responding and moderation is made super simple, with everything within the same interface too.
In fact, when it's made nice and pretty like it is, it actually makes replying kind of fun.
Using comments for SEO and to boost affiliate opportunities
Slightly off topic, so please forgive me.
But, comments are a great way to get a little SEO boost. Each comment adds extra content to your posts (with long-tail keyword opportunities), shows Google that your content is still relevant, and also shows a high level of engagement.
And, here's a sneaky tip for you too.
If you make use of the Thirsty Affiliates Pro plugin, you can automatically convert selected keywords into affiliate links to your affiliate partners. So every comment is potentially a new affiliate opportunity.
Not bad hey :)
My verdict
I like this tool, but it's one of those non-essential pieces of kit that you can easily do with out.
It's more of a luxury than anything.
If it comes free as part of the full membership (which it does) then I'm not going to complain and use the shit out of it, but I probably wouldn't be rushing out to buy it on its own any time soon.
Thrive Comments $39 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Clever Widgets
Summary: Optimises the delivery of targeted widget content.
Widgets are little snippets of information that sit in your websites sidebar or footer. They're used to promote certain content to increase engagement with your users.
A key feature of a successful blog is good user engagement.
That's stuff like:
Widgets are an important way of showcasing relevant content to your readers to encourage them to spend more time on your site.
More engagement = Higer conversions.
So, how does Thrive Clever Widgets fit into all this?
Dynamic widgets
What the f*&k does that mean?
Let me explain.
The sidebar on your website is currently static. That means that the information that is displayed, is global ie. It's displayed on every blog post on your site.
Lets say for example you write a travel blog, and you've written a post about "The best travel cameras".
People reading this post are obviously interested in cameras.
With a static sidebar it may be filled with links to your other posts about "How to rough it in Bangkok" or "Best travel recipes on a budget" etc.
It's not relevant at all. A totally wasted opportunity.
However, with dynamic widgets you can determine precisely which widgets and content to show your users (based on categories, tags and post types).
You can now display highly relevant content like "Best travel tripods" or "How to insure your camera on holiday" etc.
Much more relevant, and much more likely your users will consume more of your content.
Check out the below images as an example.
With a static sidebar your users will always see the same sidebar everywhere they go:
And this is how your sidebar can work when it's dynamic:
And if you're concerned that it might slow your site down (which you totally should be), then you needn't worry.
Only widgets that need to be loaded on any given page are loaded. It's no slower than displaying static widgets the old way.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
I think this tool really comes into its own for websites that cover a range of very different topics.
I'm not really in that bracket so it's use case for me is fairly limited, but I can see how it could add a tonne of value in specific use cases.
Thrive Clever Widgets Single License $39 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Optimize
Summary: Advanced site-wide A/B split testing software.
If you're trying to make money online, then you'll know all about the importance of landing pages.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a specific page on your site, designed and optimized specifically to prompt the user into a specific action. It's often one of the first stages in your sales funnels.
That action could be:
Basically any page on your site that's tailored to a specific outcome could be considered a landing page.
Still with me here?
Ok.
Landing pages are like the backbone/framework for all of your sales/conversion funnels. If they convert well, you will make a lot of money. If they don't, you won't.
But how do you know if your landing pages are performing as good as they could be?
It's impossible to know unless you A/B Split test.
This is probably the biggest things that the majority of newbies fail to do, yet it could be the one thing that's separating them from success or failure.
Up until Thrive Optimize was released, it'd been a nightmare to split test pages. I'm talking really fricking expensive (upwards of $100p/m), or, some crappy WordPress plugin, full of bugs, that you need a computer science degree to operate.
I consider myself pretty good in this area, not a full geek (I have had sex at least once in the past 12 months), but pretty up there. And I haven't for the life of me been able to figure out a good cost effective way to split test my pages.
That was until Thrive Optimize came along.
Why is Thrive Optimize good?
It's very, very easy to use. It's very quick and easy. And, it's very cheap.
Very good all round :)
Here's how simple it is to start running your first split tests:
Step 1 - Create a page.
Step 2 - Create a variation of that page (all 100% visual editing, no custom script or short code nonsense).
Step 3 - Pick a conversion goal.
Step 4 - Start the test.
Done.
That's basically it.
Once the test has started, Thrive Optimize will drive traffic to each of your competing pages, analyze the results and give you data-driven feedback. Helping you choose the best landing pages for your campaigns.
It's super important stuff, that has probably one of the biggest impacts on your bottom line.
Here's what else you can expect with Thrive Optimize:
If you're obsessed with optimizing everything (like me :) to get the maximum 'bang for your buck' for every action you do, then you need to be A/B Split testing.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
If you're familiar with how much A/B testing software like this usually costs, then you'll understand how much of a steal this tool really is.
However, if you don't currently have a lot of traffic coming to your site then you probably won't really be able to get the most out of a tool like this.
Realistically it needs a decent bit of traffic to come into its own.
Thrive Optimize Single Licence $127 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Ovation
Summary: Automated testimonial extraction tool.
This is probably one of the least useful plugins within the Thrive Membership Suite, especially if you're a Solopreneur just starting out.
However, let me share with you what Thrive Ovation is all about, and you can make your mind up for yourself.
What does Thrive Ovation actually do?
It's built to help automate the collection process of testimonials across all the comments you get on your site. It then organizes them and helps you display them when needed, with one click.
I'm sure if you run a massive site with thousands of comments this tool would really come in handy.
But, this post is built for Solopreneurs, so I'm guessing at this point you're probably not in that bracket.
Still, I'll do my job and show you what this plugin can do for those of you that are interested.
Let me run you through the feature set:
- Transform WordPress comments into testimonials with 1-Click - Save comments to your testimonial library easily.
After writing about Thrive Ovation, it has kind of grown on me a little. I don't think it's going to make or break your online business, or save that much time in reality, but it could be a handy little add-on I guess.
And, it's part of the Thrive Membership Suite anyway, so what the hey!
It's there if you need it, but it's optional.
My verdict - for what it's worth...
This feels like one of those tools that someone built because the thought it would be a home run, only to find out that no one really cares.
Maybe that's a bit harsh.
I'm sure someone cares, it's just not me that's all.
Thrive Ovation Single Licence $39 or Free (as part of Thrive Themes Membership)
Thrive Themes Membership - Frequently asked questions
It includes all of the premium plugins in this list. The whole lot. And, as they roll out new products they too will be added to the membership.
Each of the plugins can be bought separately for a one time fee, however, Thrive Themes Membership is an ongoing subscription (paid yearly) and is not available for a one time fee.
The price you pay today, will be the price you pay in the future (regardless of any price increases).
They offer support via their inbuilt support ticketing system, but they don't offer phone or live chat support.
If you choose to cancel your subscription you'll still have access to all of the products and your site will function just fine. But, you won't receive any product updates, new features and tools, or support.
Yes. In fact it's a great tool for writing blog content. This post you are reading right now has been built with Thrive Architect.
Conclusion
When I started this post I already thought that the full Thrive Membership was pretty good value, but after writing this 4000+ word behemoth of a post I've be re-sold ten times over.
Any one of these plugins could be sold for at least the $19p/m they're charging for the entire plugin suite.
With the help of a few tools like this, you can start leveraging multiple areas of your online business so you can maximize your output as a start-up Micropreneur.
Peace out.
Rowan.
Thrive Architect is really cool and it helps to create amazing contents. Other Thrive plugins are build with great care and they provide maximum benefit for Webmasters.
I’m hearing you on that one Praveen, I totally agree.