“Blogola” (blog + payola) or “bloggola” (blogger + payola) is when a blog or a blogger receives money or free merchandise, presumably for a favorable write-up. The older term “payola” involved payoffs in the music industry to push a particular recording artist.
 
Political blogs had “blogola” issues in 2006 (involving the Daily Kos) and 2010 (involving Republican candidates). “Blogola” has been cited in print since 2004.
   
   
Webopedia Computer Dictionary
blogola
A slang term used in online marketing circles to describe the act of bribing or paying influential bloggers to create a buzz in the blogosphere about a specific product or technology in their blog.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
payola, n.
[< PAY v.1 + -OLA suffix2, perhaps originally after VICTROLA n.]

The practice of bribing a person to use his or her influence to promote a particular commercial interest, product, etc.; a bribe of this kind, or the money used as a bribe.
Originally: bribery of a bandleader or disc jockey to promote a particular recording or artist. See also PLUGOLA n.
In quot. 1937: the recipient of such a payment.
1937 Traverse City (Michigan) Record-Eagle 20 Oct. 16/2 A ‘payola’ is an orchestra leader who expects to receive a fee from a publisher for ‘plugging’ a song.
1938 Variety 19 Oct. 41 The payola element had made their deals with bandleaders on the expectation that they continue to get 19c, thereby making it profitable to do business with the plug at a rate of around 10c a point.
1938 Variety 19 Oct. 41 (heading) Plug payolas perplexed.
1953 Time 23 Feb. 56/3 A world where cut-ins (giving a performer a share of a song’s profits), hot stoves (open bribes) and other forms of payola were standing operating procedure.
   
Althouse
Monday, December 20, 2004
Bloggers promoting products.
Mickey Kaus is praising an obscure music CD that was sent to him. He’s not specifically saying more free things should be sent to him, but, really, why shouldn’t review copies of CDs, DVDs, and books be sent to bloggers who might write about them?
 
And doesn’t it seem inevitable that there will be a blogger payola scandal at some point? We bloggers build up our credibility with readers over the months and years of writing. You assume if a blogger you trust says that a TV show or a movie or a book is good it’s because he thinks so for purely independent and un-self-interested reasons unless he says otherwise. I don’t think free review copies of things undermine this independence. MSM reviewers get free copies of the CDs, DVDs, and books they write about. A blogger has such a strong interest in maintaining credibility that he’s likely to make a point of saying he’s received a free copy.
(...)
UPDATE: An emailer writes that there should be a spiffy little word for blogger payola, like “blogola.” Maybe we could also do with a word for blog product placement, like maybe “product blogment.”
           
The Hotline’s Blogometer
10/24: World To End This Week, Bloggers Hardest Hit?
October 24, 2005 1:31 PM
BROWN VS. HACKETT II: Blogola Or Bologna?
Russo and Pounder both express suspicions of how Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas decided to get behind Brown.  On 10/3, as the rumor 1st came that Brown might run, Moulitsas leaned toward Hackett, writing then, “give me an Iraq vet over a career politician, even one with Brown’s excellent pedigree.” On 10/4, Armstrong said he hoped Brown would run (noting his being “on Brown’s team” in the post). But by 10/6 he had apparently changed his mind, writing, “It might be a good idea for Hackett to stand down.” Buckeye Senate‘s Pounder: “The next thing you know Brown has Blogads littered all over the leftblogs via the Blogads bidness,” which he says have “ties to Armstrong and Kos.”  Moulitsas doesn’t seem to have written about the race since then.
   
Ace of Spades HQ
June 19, 2006
Kos: Gettin’ Paid “Blogola”?
Like payola involved paying DJ’s to play records, “blogola” would involve paying bloggers secretly to shill for politicians.
 
Or “Kosola,” some are calling it, because it chiefly seems to involve Kos. And his sorta-partner, Jerome Armstrong of MyDD.com. (Which is reassuring, because no one’s offered me dick.)
 
WebProNews
Payola Becomes Blogola, Courtesy of Microsoft
Comment Wednesday, December 27, 2006
By WebProNews Staff
Ethics and public relations in the blogosphere have taken a severe beating in 2006. Phony bloggers. Diggers paid to digg. Bloggers paid to post. It all culminates in the sketchiest move yet as bloggers begin receiving top-of-the-line laptops on their doorsteps, loaded with Windows Vista, courtesy of Microsoft, AMD and Edelman.
 
BusinessWeek
Internet May 19, 2009, 12:01AM EST
Blogola: The FTC Takes On Paid Posts
The Federal Trade Commission wants bloggers to disclose when they’ve been wooed with cash or freebies from companies they cover
By Douglas MacMillan
Readers of Adventures in Babywearing, a blog for parents, got an up-close look at the Ergo, a $135 embroidered baby carrier in a shade called “organic blue” in a May 14 post on the site. Blog operator Stephanie Precourt was impressed. “The Ergo truly is now my first choice for long-term wear as well as nursing and doing chores around the house,” she wrote.
 
Money can’t buy that kind of advertising for Maui (Hawaii)-based ERGObaby. Or can it? As Precourt wrote in her blog, the company sent the carrier free, along with a matching pouch and backpack. Precourt says it’s legitimate to blog about a product she’s been given by its manufacturer.
 
NYTimes.com - Schott’s Vocab Blog
July 30, 2009, 9:30 am
Blogola
Payola for blogs: freebies offered to bloggers in return for favorable coverage.
 
Reporting recently for NPR, David Schaper wrote:
 
The growing rift in the blogosphere over what some are calling “blogola” was among the issues discussed at the fifth annual Blog-Her conference in Chicago.

“Blogola” is the free goodies, products, trips and other perks many marketers are giving to bloggers in hopes of getting favorable publicity or positive reviews. It’s a hot topic among “mommy-bloggers” in particular, who are proving to be quite influential with their readers.
(...)
(The term blogola seems to have been in use since 2006. Update | An eagle-eyed co-vocabularist directs our attention to this 2004 post on the Althouse blog: “An emailer writes that there should be a spiffy little word for blogger payola, like “blogola.” Maybe we could also do with a word for blog product placement, like maybe “product blogment.”)
 
Ace Of Spades HQ
August 23, 2010
Blogola!
The Daily Caller reports:
 
“It’s standard operating procedure” to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that “at least half the bloggers that are out there” on the Republican side “are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.”
 
No, it’s really not. This is some guy offering this reporter the quote he wants—but it’s not SOP, at least not that I’ve heard.
 
The Other McCain
Joe Miller Didn’t Give Me Bloggola
Posted on | August 23, 2010
Six weeks ago, I reported about Joe Miller’s Senate campaign in Alaska, and yesterday Ace of Spades endorsed Miller. Thanks to the Daily Caller, Ace now finds it necessary to point out that he didn’t do it for money:...