Last
Call for Discounted NamesCon Global Tickets -
Final Early Bird Offer Expires Friday Night
The 2026NamesCon
Global conference in Miami is
coming up fast now. As veteran conference goers
know, it pays to get your tickets as early
possible. The last discount opportunity
will be gone after Friday night (Sept. 25,
2026 at the stroke of midnight). If you register
before the deadline, you will get $250
off the cost of the $999 standard pass that goes into effect Saturday.
On top of that, if you use the DNJournal promo
code - DNJ20 - at checkout it will knock
another 20% off the price!
If
you are under 30 years of age, the savings are
even bigger ($500 to be exact). NamesCon's Under
30 Pass is a deeply-discounted $499
ticket geared toward individual investors,
individual brokers, and emerging entrepreneurs,
who are under the age of 30. While the price is
lower, the benefits are the same:
Access to all sessions, keynotes and
panels
Access to the Exhibition Area
Access to the live domain auction
Coffee breaks
Access to all official networking events which include catering and bar offerings
Network with fellow investors, industry experts, and key industry players from around the globe
Time has already ready run out on securing a
room at NamesCon's host hotel since the entire block
at the Marriott Biscayne Bay has sold out.
The good news on that front is that conference
organizers have secured additional discounted rooms at the Hilton Miami
Downtown, right next to the primary host hotel.
That will allow you to use the quick and efficient
shuttle bus service between the Marriott and the
show venue - the nearby Ice Palace - that
will run throughout the show.
We will, of course be at NamesCon, both to speak
and to cover the event for readers and are hoping to
see you in Miami!
.it.com
Passes 200,000 Domain Registrations to Set a New
All-Time High for Their Category
Registrar
.it.com
Domains announced today that their total
number of registrations has passed 200,000 after
growing by 33% since the opening quarter of
this year. In addition to the high growth rate,
the number of registrations is notable because it
sets a new high water mark for .com domains
in this category.
.it.com
sells third level domain names like buy.it.com (.com
is the top level domain, it is the second
and the chosen name is the 3rd level). Third level
domains have been popular around the world for
decades, especially with country code extensions
like .co.uk and .com.au. It's not a new thing for
.com TLDs either with CentralNic (now Team
Internet) operating a large portfolio of them,
including .uk.com, .us.com and .cn.com
to name a few. While CentralNic did not break out
numbers for their individual strings, our research
indicates their most popular option, .uk.com,
topped out at a high of 100,000 to 120,000
registrations.
Setting a new standard is always impressive but
it is especially remarkable to see howquickly
.it.com has done it. In February the company passed
the 150,000 mark. Now, just 7 months later, the
count stands 33% higher, fueled by a growing registrar network now topping
50+
partners in more than 150 countries
around the world. That success can be partially
attributed to the dual meaning that IT
carries as the universally known acronym for
information technology, as well as the
abbreviation for Italy (making it a popular
choice with Italian companies).
In
this new AI era, the tech connection is especially
potent since the number of newly funded AI companies worldwide
increased by 71% in 2025, according to the Stanford AI Index
2026. Each new company entering the market needs an online identity, while the supply of short and relevant names under
traditional extensions remains limited.
Andrey Insarov, Founder and CEO of it.com
Domains, said, “We developed .it.com to make online identities more relevant to the businesses
behind them, easier to access and practical for companies at different stages of growth. Our
focus is on giving businesses a name that feels meaningful while providing the reliability and
global reach they expect. This milestone shows that businesses value having more choice in how they present
themselves in a digital landscape.”
The
company's strategy now reaches well beyond
expanding domain registrations alone. With
another wave of new TLDs about to launch,
it.com Domains recognized the critical need
for
reliable registry infrastructure, extensive registrar distribution and the operational
capacity to support domains at scale. Earlier this year, it.com Domains was named an
evaluated Registry Service Provider (RSP) for
ICANN’s 2026 New gTLD Program. The company can now apply the same technology, registrar
relationships and operational experience behind
.it.com to help other organizations launch and
manage their own top-level domains. All of
which indicates the company's growth story is
just getting started.
Industry
Pioneer Dan Rubin Returns to the Domain Drop
Catching Arena With a Completely Rebuilt Version
of an Old Favorite - JustDropped.com
When I
first stumbled upon the domain business in 2002,
one of the first persons who helped me start
building a portfolio of my own was JustDropped.com
Founder Dan Rubin. Dan had started his
business the same year and one of his products was
a desktop drop catching script that
connected directly to my account at one of the
most popular investor-oriented registrars of
the era, Enom. With it, you could take
names you found on the daily drop lists, add them
to the script and start it when the drops began.
You could sit there and watch domains
automatically being registered and added to your
registrar account. It was an amazing thing!
It
was also probably the best value for the money
that I ever got as I used it to acquire dozens of
domains that generated steady profits for years to
come. That, of course, was a unique
opportunity in time because just a few years
later major players, having recognized the
opportunity in domains, deployed tons of cash to
dominate the drop catching process - one in which
most valuable expired domains started going into
auctions. So today, it's all about finding tools
that, in addition to telling you what is dropping
and when, identifies the names that most closely
match what you want and also offer the
greatest potential for profitable resale.
Just
Dropped Founder Dan Rubin and his
family on a visit to Gainesville,
Florida this month to watch the Florida
Gators first football games of season
(Dan's youngest daughter is a senior at
the University of Florida).
Those
tools have steadily improved through the years and
I'm not at all surprised to see Dan behind one of
the most promising new options - one that
carries a proud name from the past - JustDropped.com
- but that has been rebuilt from scratch for a new
more competitive environment. Dan had set the
original business on the back burner while raising a
family and continuing to pursue his personal
investing regimen. This year he decided it was time
to re-enter the arena with the launch
of the new site.
I got my first look at it today and there is a
lot to like including, but not limited to:
All-New
JustDropped.com – Completely rebuilt
from the ground up with a modern, faster
interface.
JD Score
– a proprietary 0–100 “super
filter” that helps surface domains
worth investigating first.
Advanced
Domain Search & Filtering –
Search by keywords, exact domains, patterns,
status, TLD, length and more.
Real-Time
Domain Keyword Alerts – Set your
keywords once and JustDropped continuously
monitors for matching domain activity and sends
alerts.
Pending
Delete Domain Lists – Research
upcoming .com, .net and .org drops in advance,
with JD Score included for every domain.
Downloadable
Pending Delete CSVs – Complete lists
can be downloaded and analyzed using your own
tools and workflows.
Domain
Watchlist – Track domains you care
about and monitor their status.
Saved
Searches – Save searches so you can
quickly return to your favorite domain criteria.
WHOIS
Lookups – Research domain
registration information directly within your
workflow.
Completely
Redesigned iPhone App – Take your
JustDropped domain discovery on the go.
Waiting on App Store approval...
Built by a
Domainer, for Domainers – More than
20 years of domain-discovery experience behind
the completely rebuilt platform.
Dan said, "As a domain investor myself, I understand what it's like to search through thousands of expiring domains looking for the handful that stand out. We built the new JustDropped.com around a simple question:
Will this help our users find better domains
faster?"
While everything is
new, Dan found that some of the JustDropped fans from
the old days missed a few things they had fond
memories of. He told us, "I received quite a
bit of feedback from some of the JustDropped OGs who
told me they actually preferred the original
search interface. After 23 years of using it, I
guess old habits die hard! So rather than completely
retiring it, I decided to bring the original search
style back as a “Classic” view within the
new search area. Users can now choose between the
new streamlined search interface or switch over to
Classic view if that’s what they’re more
comfortable with. I thought it was a nice way to
move JustDropped forward while still keeping a
little bit of its history around."
The new JustDropped
offers three service levels. There is a free
option so you can try out many features and see
if the products meets your needs. There are two paid
levels beyond that, one at $25 a month and the top
level at $50 a month. You can compare
exactly what is offered at each level here.
Dan has been well-known in this business for almost
a quarter of a century now and he has always been
about finding and delivering value, so I would bet
the new iteration of JustDropped.com will continue
to meet the standard he set all those years
ago.
In
Bewildering Move Australia's .AU Domain Administrator
(AuDA) Decapitates Its Own .com.au SLD
If it
wasn't September I would have thought the headline
I saw at Domainer.com.au Monday was an
April Fool's joke. It said auDA Board Just Voted to Destroy the
.com.au Name Space - but it was no
joke. AuDA,
the administrator of Australia'a.au
top level domain and parent of second level
versions like .com.au, .net.au and .org.au
- decided to stab their loyal .com.au and .net.au customers in
the back by passing a rule that will make it too
expensive for hundreds of thousands of domain
owners to renew their names.
AuDA
did this by passing a rule saying registrants of .com.au
and .net.au domains will have to
have a trademark or company name matching
the domain they held in order to keep them. With
the cost of getting a new business registration or
trademark and maintaining it running into four
figures many will lose names they bought in good
faith years ago thanks to AuDA's decision to
change the rules in the middle of the game (a
change that, not surprisingly, will make the government
a ton of new revenue at the expense of Australia's
small business community).
David
Warmuz, CEO of Melbourne-based tech
powerhouse, Trillion.com
(parent of Above.com, Help.com and other well-known
Internet brands), wrote, " over 1 million .com.au
domains will require a new Business Name Registration or a new Trademark registration and then Change of Registrant done. We estimate that this is going to cost Small Business owners
$500 million to fix and a good $200 million every year to
maintain. This is a great win for the Australian Government through ASIC and IP Australia services, but
all at the cost of Small Businesses."
It
is quite odd that the new rule applies only to
the .com.au and .net au flavors of Australian domains -
not .org.au or even the top level marquee
domain - .au (a direct option that only
opened to the public for the first time in 2022).
Only the two that
business people counted on are affected in an inexplicable move that instantly
makes them toxic SLDs.
One
veteran Aussie domain investor/developer, Ned
O'Meara, wondered if this was a calculated
plan meant to drive up .au sales that,
with about 800,000 registered domains, are
dwarfed by the 3.3 million registered in .com.au.
The issue with that now is how could anyone
trust AuDA not to eventually pull the same
bait and switch on .au holders thatthey
have on com.au and net.au registrants? The one thing they
have succeeded in doing with this move is
taint the entirety of one of the world's great
country code TLDs.
The
mistake is so monumental, we would guess that
between now and when the rule gets implemented, AuDA is going to face an enormous
amount of blowback from the business
community and a variety of legal challenges
that may stop the madness before the damage is
irreversible.
"Trust
takes years to build, seconds to
break, and forever to repair." - Dhar
Mann
.Chess
Domains Are Coming with Community Application from
FIDE/World Chess Partnership Holding Dominant
Board Position
Chess
fans around the world can expect to see the
wildly popular 1500-year-old game's online profile
elevated, thanks to the ICANN's 2026 round
of new gTLDs. Now that the application window has
closed, we are learning more about what new top
level domains were applied for and who is seeking
to operate them. The latest to step forward is a
powerhouse partnership between the International
Chess Federation (FIDE) and
commercial partner, World
Chess, that applied for the .chess
TLD. FIDE represents more than 200 national
chess federations, giving them the credibility
needed to file a community application - a class
that is given preference when more than one party
applies for a TLD (at the moment no other
applicant for .chess has been revealed).
FIDE's
commercial partner, World Chess,
develops online chess platforms, professional
tournaments and chess products for players
worldwide. With an estimated 600 million
chess players around the globe and a fan base
exceeding one billion, there is a
substantial market to serve. In a press
release about their application,
World Chess detailed the partnership's plans,
noting "National federations will receive dedicated .chess domains, allocated in coordination with FIDE — a common,
recognizable internet identifier system for organized chess in every country. Clubs, academies,
organizers, platforms, media and players will be able to register names that instantly say what they are:
a string built for the game, backed by the institution that has governed it since 1924, and operated by World Chess.
FIDE
and World Chess have also chosen a technical
partner to provide back-end services for
.chess, ICANN Regsistered Service Provider .it.com
Domains (a company that already
operates its own .it.com namespace with over
150,000 active domains). .it.com Domains
already had a successful working relationship
with World Chess. In 2023 they entered a
three-year partnership agreement under which .it.com
Domains sponsored World's Chess's Armageddon
Chess Series.
Acting FIDE
President Viswanathan Anand said. “Chess deserves its own place on the internet — one where a player, a parent or a sponsor can see at a glance that a domain is genuinely part of the game.
.chess will give our federations and our community a shared, trusted home online, and I am glad that FIDE is anchoring it together with World Chess.”
Registered
Agents Takes a Two-Pronged Approach to New TLDs -
Running Their Own and Providing Back-End Services
to the Rest
Over
1,600 applications to run new Top Level
Domains were filed with ICANN in the recently
concluded 2026 round (the first chance to create
new domain extensions since 2012). The impending
flood of new TLDs not only creates opportunities
for entrepreneurs to operate entire TLDs of their
own, it creates opportunities for companies that
provide the back-end services needed by all
of those new registry operators to function. There
are also companies taking advantage of both
opportunities at the same time. We saw that
today when Registered
Agents Inc. (RAI) announced they have
applied to run six new TLDs and are also
diving into the registry services business with an
all-new, built from scratch infrastructure,
designed to give gTLD operators and ccTLD
operators more choice for the technology behind
their domains. That entity has been dubbed Astronym
Registry™.
Christopher
Ambler
RAI Director of Domain Registry
Astronym is the brainchild of Christopher
Ambler, one of those longest tenured
veterans in the entire industry with a career
dating back to the late 1980s. Christopher has
worked for Microsoft, Enom and GoDaddy
and is current Director of Domain Registry at
Registered Agents Inc. He moved from GoDaddy
to RAI in 2022 with the goal of building
"a new kind of registry, not
driven by investor control, but focused on
independence and quality - one designed to be
an alternative for TLD operators, registrars
and sovereign registries not wanting to use
publicly-traded companies or investor-owned
registry infrastructure solutions."
Ambler added, "Astronym is
independent, modern and designed to give
operators more control over the technology
powering their domains.”
As for their new TLD plans, the company applied for
.epic, .identity, .mark,
.private, .registeredagent and .verified. .Epic
is an apparent nod to the Epik domain
registrar that RAI acquired in 2022 after it
ran aground following financial malfeasance
under previous ownership. Even so, they aren't
the only party that has applied for the .epic
extension.
Ambler said, "Registered Agents Inc wants to promote
the TLDs to our six million-plus customers who care about independence
from Big Tech. Big Data. And Big Corporate. With a larger business-to-business customer base than GoDaddy, the company is uniquely positioned to bring better TLDs to the business world than any other registry operator.
We’re not building Astronym to only run six
domains, we’re building the infrastructure for a much bigger registry
business. We are actively pursuing partnerships with registry operators and also exploring opportunities to acquire existing registries from owners looking for an exit."
With
a Record of Success Running New Top Level Domains
Radix is Back for Round 2 With Their Sights Set on
Winning Dozens of New TLDs
Applicants
seeking to run their own new TLDs continue
to step forward and reveal the domain extensions
they applied for in ICANN's 2026 round -
the first opportunity to do so since the first
round was held 14 years ago. Radix
was active in that last round, landing multiple
TLDs including .tech, .online
and .website, to name a few. They've also
been one of the most successful operators of TLDs
that were added to the Internet in that 2012
round, so it is no surprise to learn they were
even busier in the 2026 round. They wound up
filing applications to run 46 additional
new TLDs, labeling the new initiative as Radix
Deux. They've also created a special website
to track developments in the new campaign at deux.radix.website.
Underscoring
how highly Radix is prioritizing this opportunity is
the fact that it is the company’s largest
strategic commitmentsince its founding.
The company began with more than 3.2 million words
and terms, analyzed over 1.8 million real-world
business and brand names for naming patterns,
evaluated more than 110,000 strings against
quantitative criteria, and scrutinized 580 finalist
strings individually; combining predictive modeling
built on a decade of Radix’s own registry data
with the judgment of the team that built its
existing portfolio.
The
46 applications are organized into seven
categories, each built around a distinct thesis:
AI (TLDs applied for listed on the first line
in the graphic below), for the machine-intelligence
era; Technology (line 2), for the layers
everything runs on; Bio & Health (line
3), for care, treatment, and the life sciences; Finance
(line 4), for money’s migration into software; Business
(line 5), for the language of commerce and work; Creator
(line 6), for the people who make things; and Culture
(line 7) for taste, belonging, and shared spaces.
Sandeep
Ramchandani
Radix CEO
Radix
CEO Sandeep Ramchandani said, “There
are two ways to approach a TLD round like this:
apply wide and see what sticks, or pick
deliberately and commit completely. We chose
the latter. We narrowed 3.2 million
possibilities down to 46, and every
string that made it is one we intend to operate;
there are no hedges on this list. We have spent
over a decade demonstrating what happens when
Radix commits to a string; our existing TLDs,
such as .tech, .store, and .online, have grown
into some of the most popular TLD brands under
the same team. Radix led this industry through
its first generation of new domains. We are
ready to lead the second.”
Of
course, in many cases there will be applicants
hoping to run the same TLD, so there is still a
long way to god before we will know who ends up
winning the various TLDs. Sandeep addressed that
in a LinkedIn post today, writing "How many
of these 46 we'll ultimately operate, nobody
knows — that's the nature of the process. But the
conviction behind each application is real.
Radix's current TLD brands include .tech, .online,.store,
.site, .space, .fun, .website, .press, .host,
and .uno and span approximately 10 million
domains under management, distributed
through hundreds of registrars and partners
worldwide."
Fans
of Armenia's .AM TLD Have Their Party Hats on This
Month As .AM Reached a New Registration Milestone
and Celebrated Its 32nd Anniversary
While .com
is the undisputed King of the Hill, anyone who has
had a chance to enjoy a bit of international
traveling knows that in many places you will see a
nation's country code top level domain (ccTLD)
just about everywhere you turn. As a country's
Internet address, the ccTLD is both an important global
brand and a point of national pride. That has been
the case with Armenia's .am ccTLD that is
administered by The Internet Society NGO (ISOC.AM).
August
has given .am fans a couple of big reasons to
celebrate. It started August 14, 2026 when the
ccTLD hit a new high water mark of 50,000
registrations, then on Wednesday of this week
(August 26), .am broke out the confetti to mark its 32nd
anniversary.
Above
& Below: ISOC.AM leaders and supporters
at the organization's office in Yerevan
Wednesday (August 26) to celebrate the 32nd
anniversary for .AM and recognize the person who
registered the 50,000th .AM domain on August
14. That was Vahe Danelyan who unknowingly
hit the mark by registering Armenia-Tour.am at
ABC Domain (internet.am).
Vahe was unable to attend in person but his name and
domain will now be part of .AM history.
A
statement from ISOC.AM about the occasion noted,
"An essential part of this journey is the
growing community of individuals and organizations
using a .am domain. By choosing .am, you are not
only establishing your own digital presence, but
also contributing to the growth of Armenia’s
digital ecosystem and strengthening our
country’s presence in the global domain market."
Every
nation on earth has its own country code top level
domain and each ccTLD has a unique history of
its own. I've had a little extra interest in
Armenia's Internet journey because of a family
connection. My brother-in-law, retired U.S. Army Brig.
General Peter Injasoulian has deep Armenian
roots. Peter's grandfather, Harry, emigrated from
Armenia to Racine, Wisconsin in the U.S. in the
early 1900s. Harry's son's George (Peter's
dad) was born in Racine and became a Colonel in the
National Guard. Peter took the family's military
tradition even further as a General officer and
former Commander of the Michigan National Guard.
Peter's kids were U.S. Army officers too! That's a
more than century long run of service to America
thanks to Harry's arrival here from Armenia all
those years ago!
How
Sedo's Mark Ghoriafi Managed to Close Two
Previously
Unreleased 6-Figure Sales While Vacationing in the
Alaskan Wilderness This Month
Now that
summer is winding down, we're hearing about what a lot of our friends did on their
summer vacation. There were trips to the
beach or a theme park, perhaps hiking, camping or
just a comfortable staycation away from the
crowds. What you don't hear a lot about are
seaplane expeditions, hiking across glaciers in
the Alaskan wilderness and encounters with wild
bears. I know - before I say another word - that a
lot of people right now are saying - he must be
talking about Sedo's
Senior Premium Broker, Mark Ghoriafi - and they would be right.
While
Mark's boundary breaking travel adventures have always
been eye-catching, it is amazing to see how much
work he manages to get done during his
"breaks". On a vacation trip to Alaska
this month he negotiated and closed two previously
unreported six-figure sales being revealed
here for the first time. One, of those, closed
from a remote mountainside, was H2.com at $240,000
in the 3rd highest 2-character letter/number sale
on record. The other was a .ai gem - School.ai at
$105,000.
The H2.com transaction unfolded the most
unexpected way you could imagine. Mark was
Mark
"Mr. Premium" Ghoriafi hiking across a
mountain
glacier in Alaska earlier this month. Sedo's
Senior Premium Broker closed two 6-figure sales while in the
middle
of this wilderness "vacation".
thousands
of feet up a mountain, watching bears catch
salmon at a waterfall, when he finalized the
agreement. By the time he reached the base, the deal
was funded. The only bigger letter/number domain
sales, regardless of extension, have been A1.com at
$260,250 and C4.com at $265,000 - and guess who
closed that last one - yep, C4 was Mark's sale
too (this past January).
We will be charting the H2.com and School.ai sales
when our next bi-weekly domain sales report comes
out Wednesday evening (August 26).
Sedo CEO Arthur Mai noted, "Mark is a great example of what makes
Sedo's brokerage team special. We have brokers
who bring real expertise, real relationships, and a
genuine drive to get the right deal done – for
buyers and sellers alike. Mark is one of them, but
he's far from alone." It's true, having covered
Sedo for the past 25 years, it has been remarkable to
see how many top tier brokers, past and present,
have carried the Sedo flag along the way.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so
that obviously means a video is even better.
Check out this clip from Sedo to see a lot more of Mark's trek across the
splendorous Pacific Northwest and Alaska:
NamesCon
Global 2026 Update: The AI Focused Preliminary
Agenda Is Out and Ticket Prices are Going Up
Friday Night
The 2026
NamesCon Global conference in Miami
is coming up fast. If you plan on
attending the big event at the Ice Palace
in Miami November 11 & 12, now is the
time to finalize your travel plans, secure a room
at the show hotel - the Marriott
Biscayne Bay - and get the best ticket
price. If the latter is important to you, register
ASAP because prices will be going up
Friday night (August 21) at the stroke of
midnight. Be sure to use the DNJournal promo code
- DNJ20 - at checkout to knock another
20% off the price (on a standard pass you will
save $129.80).
The
preliminary NamesCon Global 2026 agenda
is now online so you can get a much more detailed
look at what the conference organizers have in
store for you. As you would expect, AI
will be the center
of attention,
starting with the very first session - Building What Comes Next: The Internet Economy in the Age of AI
- in which NamesCon CEO Christian Jaeger,
Managing Director Anthony Pombal, Chairman of
the Advisory Board Soeren von Varchmin and
Chief Evangelist Christian Dawson will set
the stage for everything that will follow.
The
latest preview NamesCon distributed noted, "As
AI reshapes how people find, hold, and trust things online,
ownership itself is being redefined. Domains are no longer just addresses, they’re increasingly becoming part of conversations about digital identity, trust, ownership, and long-term value creation.
Together, these sessions explore how the domain industry is reinventing itself
for the next generation of the Internet, not simply reflecting on the last one.
See the program and start building your NamesCon Global agenda."
I
will, or course, be in Miami, both to cover the
conference for you and to participate on stage, most
notably in the highly anticipated show closing
session on November 12 - The Beanstalk Challenge Finale: Building Something Real
- in which I'll sit down with Beanstalk
Challenge Founder & Creator Rick
Schwartz to review the ground breaking project that will come to
an exciting conclusion that day in Miami.
Brothers
in Arms: John Alagna's Million Dollar Decision to
Apply for Multiple 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 veteranJoe
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
John
Alagna
Founder, TLD1 LLC
To
make it happen, John started a new company, TLD1
LLC and, with Joe as his
adviser, applied for two new generic
top-level domains: .bewell and .etc
and chose two others - .joinus, and .whatsnew
as replacement strings (If their first
choices are contested by other applicants
ICANN gives applicants a short window to
switch to their chosen replacement strings).
While
John is new to the domain business he is no
stranger to building successful companies,
having scored big wins across the retail, web services, and insurance
industries. His most recent exit was Carolina
Heritage Insurance, a Hilton Head
Island, Carolina brokerage that he grew into
one of the leading independent brokerages on
the East Coast before selling it to Relation
Insurance Services, a top-25 national
brokerage, in 2024.
John noted, "The internet has about six
billion users, but fewer than 200 million of
them actually create, publish, or sell
online. That gap is going to close,
and every new creator will needan
address they own. We applied for names
that are positive, useful, and open to
everyone. Each will operate as an open TLD,
available to all registrants through ICANN-accredited
registrars, with accessible first-year
pricing and active DNS abuse
prevention."
While there is still a long way to go before
ICANN chooses winning applications - including the
possibility of having to compete with other
applicants for the same TLDs - John has
already contracted .it.com Domains, one of the
first ICANN-evaluated registry service providers,
as its back-end registry operator.
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.”
The
2026 Round of New gTLDs Has Pulled Colin Campbell
Back Into the Domain Game with a New Company and a
Singular Focus on .Factory
In 2012,
ICANN radically changed the Internet
landscape when it opened the door to over a
thousand new top level domains. One of those went
to serial entrepreneur Colin Campbell who
focused all of his efforts on getting just ONE new
extension - .CLUB. That single minded focus
and never ending marketing blitz made .CLUB
successful enough to get GoDaddy's
attention in 2021 when they acquired the .CLUB
registry. Colin continued with his many
other ventures and also authored a best selling
business book - Start.Scale.Exit.Repeat.
Fast
forward to ICANN's long-awaited 2nd round
of new gTLDs - the first opportunity on 14
years to create a new domain extension. The
window for applicants to apply closed earlier this
week with 1,600 submissions, including more
than 300 from a
single entity, Link Feedom Group
(LFG). This new round also pulled Colin back
into the domain game with an entirely
different strategy than LFG is pursuing. Once
again, Colin is interested in just ONE new
TLD.
This
time it is .factory - a quest that prompted
him to team up with long-tine colleague and highly
respected industry veteran Michele
Van Tilborg to create a new company - USA
Made in America Inc. - the official applicant
for .factory.
Colin and Michele believe .factory has the potential to become a valuable
global digital asset serving manufacturers,
technology companies, entrepreneurs, brands and
businesses across a wide range of industries.
While the word “factory” traditionally
refers to a place where physical goods are
manufactured or produced, USA Made in America
believes its commercial potential extends wellbeyond traditional manufacturing into
technology, software, artificial intelligence,
media, design and other areas where products,
ideas and services are created.
Colin
said, “We strongly believe that this gTLD will be a
great asset to America. The Internet has
created entirely new categories of digital real
estate, and strong generic words can become
valuable infrastructure. We believe .factory has
the qualities we look for in a top-level domain:
it is short, memorable, globally understood and
commercially relevant across many industries.”
Michele, who also serves as President of the new
company, added, “Businesses around the world
want domain names that actually mean something
to their customers. We believe .factory can give
companies a new opportunity to secure a
meaningful, memorable identity that reflects what
they make, build or create, whether that happens
in a physical facility or entirely through
technology.”
Now, Colin and Michele are well aware that if more
than one qualified applicant seeks the same or
a conflicting string, the applicants may
ultimately need to resolve the contention through settlement
or an auction process. As a result, USA Made
in America has established a financing strategy
that contemplates raising up to $10 million
through a private securities offering conducted in
reliance on Rule 506(b) of
Colin
Campbell Co-Founder,
USA Made In America Inc.
Michele
Van Tilborg
Co-Founder & President
USA Made In America Inc.
Regulation D. The financing is intended to provide the
company with additional capital, if required, to
pursue .factory through a potential
contention-resolution process or auction and to
support related registry development and operating
requirements. The financing is contingency capital
and may not be required if .factory is not contested
or if contention is resolved without an
auction.
Colin has been through this already. When he
founded .Club Domains LLC in 2012 the .club string was contested by multiple applicants. His
company ultimately secured the rights to operate the
TLD through a private auction used to resolve
the contention set. If his new company completes
their mission to win, .factory it will be operated as
an open generic top-level domain available
through ICANN-accredited registrars.
There is still a long road ahead before
any of the 2026 new gTLD applicants will go live on
the Internet. Later this year ICANN will reveal
strings, begin initial evaluation of applicants and
open a formal objection period. Next year (and
likely a year or two beyond) the process will
continue with contention resolution, string similarity reviews,
contracting and final delegation.
Link
Freedom Group Goes All In on New gTLDs - Company
Filed Over 300 Submissions Before ICANN's New gTLD
Application Window Closed Wednesday Night
For the
first time in 14 years, ICANN
has started the process of creating hundreds
of new Top Level Domains. After opening in
April, the window to submit applications to run
newly created TLDs closed last night
(August 12, 2026). While it will be a couple or
more months before ICANN reveals exactly what
strings were applied for and who applied to run
them, we found out today who the most prolific
player in this critical opening stage may have
been.
Link
Freedom Group (LFG), a new internet
infrastructure company built on a foundation laid
by Nova
Registry (operator of the .link
TLD), announced a massive submission of more
than 300 proposed TLDs, representing tens
of millions of dollars in application fees.That would be the largest TLD submission on
record, dating back to the first round of new
gTLDs back in 2012. The Company also announced the
appointment of Vaughn Liley, General
Manager of Nova Registry, as CEO of Link Freedom
Group.
Liley
said, "The internet has changed
dramatically since ICANN last opened
applications for new TLDs in 2012. Digital
identity has become fundamental to how
people communicate, work and participate online,
yet users still don’t truly own their place on
the internet. From email addresses and social
media profiles to personal websites, much of our
online presence ultimately exists at the
discretion of someone else. We believe the
internet’s namespace should reflect how people
use the web today, and our mission is to modernize
how internet identity works.”
As part of its commitment to transparency LFG has
published their full list of submissions
now rather than wait for ICANN's Reveal Day
(expected by the end of October). Their
portfolio, that can be viewed and downloaded at LFG.link,
provides a comprehensive early look at the names
and digital verticals the Company believes can
help shape the next generation of the internet.
Vaughn
Liley
CEO, Link Freedom Group
Here's
a small sampling from their list: AI & Tech: .llm, .agi, .quantum,
.robot Commerce: .cart, .brand, .merch, .mall Culture: .lfg, .kek, .mvp, .truth, .omg,
.boom Crypto & Web3: .block, .btc, .coin, .nft Lifestyle: .nil, .god, .pop, .zen Web Infrastructure & Utility: .portal,
.core, .bit, .internet, .url
Liley
noted, “The 2026 application window marked the
first opportunity in more than a decade to expand
one of the internet’s foundational layers—and to
challenge the concentration of influence held by
a relatively small number of companies that dominate
internet infrastructure. Since the last application
window, entirely new categories of internet
users and businesses have emerged. Yet much of the
domain namespace available today was designed for an
earlier era of the internet.”
Link
Freedom Group’s portfolio will now move into the
next stages of ICANN’s evaluation process. After
Reveal Day there will be a String Confirmation
Day in November 2026, when applicants will
confirm their final string selections. It is then
expected to take another year or so for ICANN to
finish the evaluation process and resolve any
objections, with the first uncontested new gTLDs
going live in late 2027 or early 2028.
ShortDot
and Dot Hip Hop Form New Partnership to Unlock
Full Potential of .HipHop TLD
ShortDot and
Dot Hip Hop, LLC
have announced a new partnership to support the continued growth of the
.HipHop top-level domain. Under the agreement, ShortDot will work closely with Dot Hip Hop to market the extension, expand its global registrar distribution, develop its premium domain strategy, and increase registrations worldwide.
The collaboration brings together Dot Hip Hop’s cultural vision and ShortDot’s registry, marketing, and registrar expertise.
Created for artists, creators, entrepreneurs, brands, organizations, and communities connected to hip-hop,
.HipHop provides the definitive digital identity for one of the world’s most influential
cultural
movements.
Monte
Cahn
Lars
Jensen
Through the new partnership the two companies aim to increase awareness, strengthen adoption, and create
new opportunities for individuals and businesses to build their digital presence on
.HipHop.
Monte Cahn, the Executive Managing Director of Dot Hip Hop,
LLC, and Founder and President of RightOfTheDot,
LLC, said, "When we considered the right partner to help accelerate the next chapter of
.HipHop, we wanted more than technical registry
expertise. We wanted a team that understands how to build brands, grow registries, and create long-term
value. ShortDot has earned an outstanding reputation throughout our industry by consistently delivering results. Their experience, global reach, and marketing capabilities will complement our continued leadership of
.HipHop as we work together to expand the extension’s visibility, adoption, and worldwide footprint."
Lars Jensen, CEO and Founder of ShortDot,
said, "Being entrusted with the management of
.HipHop is a tremendous vote of confidence in our team and our Registry Services business. Monte and the Dot Hip Hop team have built an incredible foundation around a domain that represents one of the world's most influential cultural movements. Our responsibility now is to build on that foundation by expanding global distribution, strengthening registrar partnerships, increasing awareness, and ensuring
.HipHop reaches its full potential worldwide. We are honored to lead the next chapter of its journey."
As part of the collaboration, ShortDot will lead global marketing initiatives and support registrar distribution, premium domain development, and commercial growth. Dot Hip Hop and ShortDot will
also work together on positioning, outreach, and campaigns designed to grow the extension sustainably over the long term.
Why
GoDaddy's First Ever Liquidation Auction Event is
Something Special - Upcoming Sale Opens Sorely
Needed Fast Track for Converting Domains Into Cash
Auctions
are a critical component of every day life for
domain investors, serving the needs of buyers who
use them to find under priced bargains and
sellers who rely on them for cash flow.
Since auctions are being conduced every day on a
wide variety of platforms, we don't cover them as
news unless they are part of a larger event or
have an especially important purpose. The
latter case is a rare one but it is embodied by GoDaddy's
upcomingLiquidation
Auction Event, a three-day sale that
runs Tuesday, August 11 through Thursday,
August 13, 2026.
With
this industry now over 30 years old, GoDaddy
recognized a growing need for a way portfolio
owners who are retiring or exiting the business
for one reason or another, to sell as many
domains as
possible
at fair prices as determined by the market. The same
is true for younger people who are suddenly facing unexpected
life changing situations, like the loss of a
job, a divorce or a medical emergency.
When
I first heard about the event, I thought that's a
very good idea, especially with an industry giant
like GoDaddy presenting it, which assures it will
get maximum attention and attract a broad array of
buyers from around the world. However, shortly after
I heard about it, the event changed from a
"good idea" into something critically
important to me. I got the kind of news from a
long time friend that you never want to hear - one
of those life altering events that cause the kind of
shock that makes a crisis personal instead of
just a concept.
Late
last year he was diagnosed with a rare form of a very
aggressive cancer. The 20-year industry veteran
has been fighting it ever since and at the same
time, trying to liquidate a very good portfolio of
domains to meet the needs of his wife and young
children if he loses this battle (I won't share his
name while the family is in the middle of all of
this and haven't yet told everyone close to them
about his diagnosis). His domains will be among the more
the 2,099 domains that have been submitted to
the GoDaddy Liquid Auction Event.
Several veteran auction watchers have posted
some of their favorite names from the catalog. Here
are some I will highlight, not just because of the
situation I talked about above but because they are
very good names that are priced to sell:
Domain
Starting
Price
TaxAccountant.com
$3,643
Crag.com
$3,163
TOG.org
$2,781
Backlinking.com
$2,682
Beatmakers.com
$2,638
Findadate.com
$2,575
HOLR.com
$2,500
AdventureRacing.com
$1,964
EasySEO.com
$1,914
MakingMoneyOnline.com
$1,879
CollegeCounseling.com
$1,692
Bidding
opens at 9am Arizona time (MST, UTC -7),
Tuesday, August 11, 2026, and runs through Thursday,
August 13, with closes staggered by the hour
across the day. With a more condensed auction
window than GoDaddy's popular Premium Auction
Events, it would be a good idea to review the list
early and keeping close times in mind. You can download
the entire catalog here (In addition to
the names, it includes the starting prices, around
95% of which are under $150).
Good
luck in your bidding and to all of the
sellers, some of whom are selling assets they
have spent decades acquiring. We all know how much
we love our domains, so you can imagine how difficult
this is for sellers - but it's also good to know
that if this sale tests well, it could become a
direly needed life line that any one of us
could need in the blink of an eye.
New
Domain Registrar NamesLink Dives into One of the
Industry's Most Completive Pools Confident They
Can Out Swim the Pack
There
are currently over 2,500ICANN
accredited domain registrars but the
vast majority of those accreditations are used
only as private tools for catching expired domain
names. That leaves a few hundred that are
operating businesses where you can register a name
and select from what is becoming an ever wider
range of services. A few hundred is still a
lot of competition though and with so many
well-funded, globally-known brands in the space,
getting into that business now is not for the
faint of heart. In order to stand out and stay
afloat, the leading registrars have invested
heavily in diversification so they can serve
as one-stop shops with auction platforms for
buying and selling names, AI tools for quick
website building and cheap hosting accounts that
let you open your doors to the entire world.
With
all of those headwinds to go against, we don't see
a ton of new registrars joining the fray
these days
but one that just launched this year, Nameslink.com,
has taken the plunge. The company is based in Hong
Kong but is going after a global clientele
right out of the gate. If you're on the NamePros
you may have already seen Nameslink representative
Pyrmare reaching out to domain investors there.
With a variety of bulk management tools and
automatic domain appraisals Nameslink clearly has
investors in mind - a strategy that makes perfect
sense if your aim is to grow quickly. In many
cases you would need hundreds or even thousands of
individual customers to match what a single professional
domain investor can bring through the door.
To
find out more about what Nameslink is offering and
why they believe they can break out of the crowded
registrar pack, we connected with Pyrmare who said, "In the past, customers usually needed to deal with
third-party tools for security protection, seek
value appraisals elsewhere if they were not
experienced, spend extra if they wanted to connect
their domain to email, and they couldn't build their
own website if they didn't have basic coding
knowledge. While there are specific tools and
communities for each individual need, we have grouped
those common requests and provide these features free in a user-friendly ecosystem. So,
even if a customer is new to the domain scene, with
us, they can smoothly sail their domain career
worry-free."
As a Nameslink ambassador to the western world,
Pyrmare also said that the company's Hong Kong
location is a good thing for customers in the
US and Europe, noting, "Hong Kong gives us a unique advantage
because it serves as a perfect bridge
between the East and the West. While our
roots are in Asia, our platform is built with
a global audience in mind. Our support team is
multilingual and ready to assist with
everything from basic registration questions
to complex DNS configurations. Because our
platform is entirely web-based, customers from
the US, Europe, or anywhere else can access
our free security, email, and website-building
features
seamlessly, without any regional
restrictions."
Pyrmare also ticked off the Nameslink services
assembled with domain investors in mind but useful
to all. "Our auction platform is designed to be a
comprehensive marketplace for both domain
investors and everyday users. For expired names,
we utilize advanced drop-catching and backorder
services to help users secure highly
sought-after domains the moment they drop. For
registered names, we provide a user-friendly
aftermarket where users can easily list their
portfolios for sale. What makes our auction platform
truly stand out is how it ties into the rest of our
ecosystem. Since we offer free value appraisal
tools, sellers can easily price their domains
competitively, and buyers can make informed bidding
decisions. The entire transfer of ownership and
funds is handled securely within our dashboard,
making the buying and selling process smooth and
transparent."
"I think the most important thing for
people to know is our core philosophy:
transparency and user empowerment," Pyrmare
added. " We noticed
that the traditional domain registration model was
full of hidden fees, confusing upsells, and
fragmented tools, so we built Nameslink to change
that narrative. We truly believe that everyone, from
a first-time blogger to a seasoned domain investor,
deserves an all-in-one platform where essential
tools like SSL certificates, privacy protection,
email forwarding, and website builders are
included at no charge, rather than treated as
expensive add-ons. We are constantly listening to
our community and rolling out new features based on
their feedback. We aren't just here to sell you a
domain name; we want to be your long-term partner
in building and protecting your online
presence," Pyrmare concluded.
If you've
been out of the loop lately, catch up in the Lowdown
Archive!
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