Where did the name Magical Menagerie come from?
My friend and I were brainstorming fun names that had double letters and she remembered the store in Diagon Alley called Magical Menagerie that sells animals. So that is where the name came from!
Before M-M
I always wanted to make a Harry Potter site, but I never knew how. So in my senior year of high school I took an html class. I really enjoyed learning it, I taught my teacher a lot of stuff because she was just learning how to do it herself. Most of the stuff I use for my site I didn’t even learn in the class but it was sort of a jumping off point.
At first I didn’t know how to make layouts so my friend Jenny made the first ones for me. Magical-Menagerie was originally called Draco Dormiens Numquam Titillandus and I had it on freewebs. I opened DDNT on May 6th, 2006.
The site was doing fairly well for a freewebs site, getting plenty of views and I wanted to make the site bigger, but with freewebs that was a little hard.
(story continued below)
DDNT Layouts
(click to enlarge image) Made by Jenny
About Magical-Menagerie.com
So I practiced making a few layouts for other sites and then when I bought my domain I made a new layout and changed the name of the site. So the new and improved DDNT, now called Magical-Menagerie opened on January 14, 2007. And that is where the story ends….for now. I am hoping to have this site be a great resource for Harry Potter fans and still continue after all the books and movies are completed to follow the careers of the actors/actresses.
August 3, 2009 Update: I am proud to say this site has come a LONG way since its early days. Now it is one of the largest Harry Potter sites out there. We get at least 350 hits a day now and sometimes way more than that. Also a huge event for the site was me being able to attend the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince premiere in New York to interview the cast, it was a really great experience! Hopefully I will be able to do the same thing for Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2.
This site is still a one woman show since I am a control freak and I prefer to work alone. So this is a full time job for me along with school (and work when I start working). I love doing this site so I don’t mind working on it all day posting news updates and such. There may come a day when I will need help, but that would only happen if the site became HUGE HUGE HUGE, and I really don’t think that is possible since the Harry Potter series is almost at an end with the final 2 films. But hopefully this site will still be a great resource for new Harry Potter fans for years to come!
Thanks to all who continue to visit the site, I do it for you guys, and myself of course since I love it!
Past Layouts
Made by Megan
By Jenny
Current Layouts
By Jenny
Magical Reviews
On September 14th Megan and her friend Dobby were bored so they decided to make a Reviews section for the site. Dobby made the layout and Megan coded it! Magical Reviews, is a network of Magical-Menagerie! We’re here for the sole purpose of helping you improve your website and give you reviews about your site! It opened a mere 2 hours after the idea came to them!
Layout
Magical Awards
This time, Megan got bored and decided to make an awards section for the site. So on September 15th she made the site in a few hours. Magical Awards, a network of Magical-Menagerie! Here you can nominate your Harry Potter site to win awards!! If you want to be considered make sure you read the rules before nominating and add a button to your. Good luck to everyone! We are in our first season! Each season a different actor, character, book or movie will be chosen as the theme for the graphic.
Layout
