I’ve developed a couple of small web design/development projects recently under limited, cheap and awkward circumstances (one was free!). They don’t look as nice as I’d like them too. To beef up my portfolio I’m considering showing mockups that could theoretically be setup as XHTML/CSS pages. However I don’t know if this is particularly useful to people. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to feature mockups that people might want to take.
Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
I can’t speak from much experience, but it makes sense that you would want to include in your portfolio anything that will showcase your design or development skills. So if you have some mockups that you feel are a good reflection of your abilities and can show potential clients what you are capable of, I think they definitely have a place in your portfolio. You have to start somewhere, and an empty portfolio will not impress.
Most people I saw uses a screenshots of the actual sites.
rpeg, showcasing your stuff is fine, but I would be tempted to just have screenshot’s of the mock-up’s in preference to having live demo’s (you run the risk there of people swiping your work and using it themselves). Showing anything creative you have done as part of a project is a good idea though, I encourage people asking these kind of questions to show off any concept art, sketches, prototypes and wireframes (their not technically web documents but they showcase the process). 
I think showing any designs that you may have done in the past will certainly help a lot.