LiveDirtCheap.com uses a pleasant and smooth light blue color scheme on top of a tight layout. The header graphic is just a stylish version of the site's title, albeit it still looks a little bare. It might be good to have an actual logo graphic with some representation of "cheap". This would also add more uniqueness to this design given that it is apparently a theme and matches the layout of a previously reviewed site.

The main content area will look better once there is more content as this emptiness is currently the main issue with it. A minor issue are the three dots after each title which seems unnecessary. Image thumbnails are a great detail, but could be displayed on actual article pages as well to make them look snazzier as well. As for the sidebar, the main thing that pops out is the RSS graphic in the sidebar which would look better without the border and would then remain one of the most attractive elements on the site.

Ads on article pages could be a little better integrated, using a color scheme that more closely matches the site and using a smaller font. The "Dirt Cheap Airline Tickets" article has two square ads resting on top of each other which amplifies the excess. One square per each article should probably be enough, but if two are used they should at least be separated, but also positioned in such a way not to disrupt any other design elements. Articles which would be shorter, however, probably can't support two square ads at once without issues.

Design Rating: 8/10

Focus:

Site title and domain name, "Live Dirt Cheap", pretty much covers its purpose and from the couple of articles that are available we can already see a trend in article title naming giving "dirt cheap" context: dirt cheap airline tickets, dirt cheap mp3 players etc. So we can expect this to be a resource highlighting things we can get very cheaply, ways to find cheap stuff or ways to live cheaply. Content is presented as articles rather than lists or links though, so an about page may still be useful to explain the angle from which the site covers "dirt cheap" stuff.

Focus Rating: 9/10

Content:

Well this is obviously a new site as there are only two articles currently present so it cannot, yet, be said to be a "great" resource. We can review the content of these two articles and the concept in general. Articles are basically guides to finding the cheap stuff advising the reader how to look for it and what to pay attention to as well as linking to a few useful places where products can be searched. So it doesn't link directly to selected cheap products as one might expect given the title and expected purpose, but this is still quite useful.

I would suggest a couple of things however. First, articles don't actually link to sites they mention, and instead just spell out the domain name. Linking would be far more helpful, and perhaps even having a section below the article with all links mentioned listed. Second, splitting the article into couple or more sections might be useful. For instance the article about cheap mp3 players could have the first section named "Finding the features you need" and the second section "Few places to start looking" or something to that effect.

That said the concept might work so long as articles are brief enough yet packed enough with useful references and tips to be worth plowing through by someone looking for a particular product for "dirt cheap".

Content: 7/10