Advertising is one way to notify others of your services. It is also not necessarily effective. In the many years I have advertised in the American Harp Journal, not one student has come as a result of the ads, so they are not as useful as one might think. The internet has indeed become a primary means of communication, and these open forums facilitate connections between prospective students and teachers (prospective meaning those who are looking, or thinking about the future). Locally, word of mouth might be as important, or in other circumstances, such as when a student is graduating and their teacher is recommending who they go on to.
I have known too many unethical harpists in New York to be automatically impressed by their opinions. It was the most dog-eat-dog, nasty, crooked environment I ever encountered. While it may foster a desire for ethics, there are not that many who seem to practice them.
I have learned to accept the changes in communications, and that the internet is a primary source of information, even in classical music. If this were a moderated, restricted forum with specific rules it would be different. I will mind myself more carefully, but sometimes I am sleepy and unmindful of what I suggest to posters here. I am highly aware of ethics, having been raised in an ethical system and also studied it in college. I have had a student who went to another teacher while studying with me, so I know how that feels, and I don’t take students who are currently with other teachers. However, that is up to the student, and up to teachers to inform them as to their behavior.
Advertising is very expensive,
