American cyclist Tyler Hamilton retired from the sport today after testing positive for banned substances... again. Hamilton says he took steroids to alleviate his symptoms of clinical depression. I remember when Hamilton got busted the first time for blood doping--essentially transfusing someone else's blood to boost his red blood cells, and thus, his oxygen carrying ability. We had a poster of Hamilton up in our garage, crossing the finish line alone, beat to hell, but victorious, I think from the Giro or a day race, like Dauphine or Liege-Bastogne-Liege... I'm not sure. Anyway, hearts broken, we took the poster down.

I'm going to continue hounding my readers about the value of an online portfolio to showcase your work. DO IT!

In my previous post, Marketing Yourself Online, I listed some journalism student portfolios from my twitter community. As it happens, I've stumbled upon a post from the UK with six more great sites.

Check these out! At the least, you can get some good ideas for your own portfolio.

http://www.journalismandpr.co.uk/2008/12/six-of-the-best-student-portfolio-sites/

Also: Online portfolios are a powerful way to get/keep a job!

I found this as I was catching up on my RSS feeds this morning. Dan Shawbel of Mashable! has an awesome post about how "Personal Branding Can Save You From Getting Fired."

I talked about this in my presentation to Regina Cassell's class a
couple weeks ago. By establishing a web presence (that you keep
updated) that promotes yourself as an expert on a given topic, your
marketability (and job security) is enhanced.

Shawbel makes several other points that are worth your time. Really,

I made a presentation to Regina Cassell's Pub Tech class today about building a web portfolio, and the online marketing that goes along with it.

The keys to remember when making an online presence for yourself is to keep it professional, and use it once you've got it.

Why make an online portfolio?

It sounds like a lot of work, but creating an online portfolio to showcase your work is worth it:

I've been fascinated by the reactions of twittering colleagues at the College Media Advisers conference, my non-twittering Washburn colleagues, and the college media blogosphere to the general mood at the Kansas City conference this past week. The  consensus seems to be that many of the new media sessions simply didn't contain enough instruction.