Brothers in Arms: John Alagna's Million Dollar Decision to Apply for Four New TLDs Was Easier to Make With a Key Family Member in His Corner

In my last couple of posts, I covered the opposite ends of the spectrum regarding the number of applications that were filed to to run new top level domains (TLDs) - and who filed them before ICANN's window for applications closed last week. Over 1600 submissions came in with the largest block of them - more than 300 - come from the newly formed Link Freedom Group. As a counterpoint to that story we covered USA Made In America Inc.'s application for a single TLD - .factory - the same strategy that the new company's co-founder, Colin Campbell, used to get .CLUB in the last round of new TLDS back in 2012.

To wrap up the theme, today we have an example of an applicant that, like the majority, followed a middle path, marshaling resources to go after a limited number of domain extensions that were appealing to them. Since it cost $227,000 just to file each new TLD application, you can see why it was wise to carefully consider the prospects for every TLD on your want list before taking the application leap.

Despite the heavy price tag, it seems to some like everybody and his brother had applied to run new TLDs. Well, it wasn't everybody but a well-known somebody was enlisted by his brother to help guide his entrance into the domain race. That somebody was industry veteran Joe Alagna, the Chief Strategy Officer at .it .com Domains, who literally wrote the book - How to Get Your Own Top Level Domain - with co-author Andrey Insarov. Joe's expertise came in very handy when his brother, serial entrepreneur John Alagna, saw running his own TLDs as an opportunity that was too good miss.

Joe Alagna

Joe, who has more than 25 years of experience in the domain industry, said, “I worked with dozens of successful applicants in the 2012 round. The plan here is the one that works: good strings, proven infrastructure, and honest pricing.” 

(Posted August 17, 2026)  

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