Here at Mediolana, we’re not too displeased with the performance of this fair WordPress.com blog: in a blogosphere saturated with hundreds of millions of outpourings, a stellar Technorati rating and a burgeoning readership is something to contemplate with at least a small degree of joy. However, nothing prepared us for this week’s statistics, which saw a seismic traffic spike headed our way.
Who were these new readers, and where had they come from? A little detective work later, and the source of all the extra exposure was revealed: none other than the Facebook page for fabled Al Jazeera English (‘AJE’) correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin. One of his many obsessional devotees had seen this blog’s 30th March 2011 post, where we hypothesised that part of the reason behind AJE’s dizzying rise is their correspondent mix, with Mohyeldin very much to the fore; we went so far as to compare the supremely photogenic and charismatic Mohyeldin with near-fictional Portugal and Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, such was the increased popularity enjoyed by this blog that we are now wondering whether we sold Ayman short: the effect was more akin to what we assume would be generated by a post on a certain minor deity seeing out his playing days at Los Angeles Galaxy. Which leaves us with three questions that need answering:
1. Is Ayman Mohyeldin the new David Beckham?
2. Do Al Jazeera English sell the equivalent of replica shirts for their correspondents?
3. Will the Egyptian Revolution of 2049 have its epicentre in Midan Mohyeldin?
