Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Marina Orlova arrived in the U.S. six years ago from the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod with $50, useful cleavage and a degree in philology.

The petite blonde settled in California and worked as a nanny, a model and an extra on the movie “Ocean’s Thirteen” before finding her true calling in video lessons on YouTube called “Hot for Words.” They feature playful etymologies delivered with a heavy Russian accent and minimal wardrobe.

“How else could I attract them to words?” said Orlova, 28, sipping an iced macchiato at Pastis, a trendy French bistro in Manhattan, recently. “Everyone knows that sex sells.”

The “Hot” stuff has drawn more than 238 million views in the past two years, according to YouTube, and has lofted the $50 immigrant into six-figure territory and beyond the Internet. An iPhone game application will star an Orlova-inspired character, she said. She appears regularly on Fox News’s “O’Reilly Factor.”

Last month, HarperCollins published her first book, “Hot for Words.” Building on the sexy-teacher image, it traces the origins of 80 words arranged as a school schedule.

“Orgy” and “wedding” are discussed under Sex Ed; “Coulrophobia” and “Hermaphrodite” in Science. The Advanced Placement class includes “honorificabilitudinitatibus,” the longest word in the works of Shakespeare.

Numerous photos feature an underdressed Orlova. For “hooker,” she wears mauve lingerie; for “GOP,” an American-flag bikini top.

Fan on Harley

“You wind up learning a whole lot just by looking at her beautiful face,” said Barry Drucker, 63. He arrived at Orlova’s book signing in New York last month on his Harley-Davidson.

Drucker, who has been married for 45 years, offered to take his teacher to the nearby Petrossian restaurant for an evening of Champagne and caviar.

“Her intelligence is very appealing,” he said.

Orlova began creating her linguistic episodes for YouTube as a hobby in February 2007. She chose philology, a common major in Russian universities, because the word drew blank looks when Orlova mentioned it in California. It was also a time when “everybody was uploading cleavage,” she said. She played to her strengths.

“I thought, let’s dress hot and start talking about words,” Orlova said.

Within two months, her videos regularly drew 100,000 views, she said. Six months later, her views hit 1 million, and soon after that YouTube asked her to join a select circle of partners with whom the company shares its advertising revenue.

‘Great Content’

“She makes great content that’s unique to YouTube and engaging to viewers,” said Aaron Zamost, the company’s spokesman, in an e-mail. “She garners a large audience that’s attractive to advertisers; she’s an authentic voice in the YouTube community.”

“Hot for Words” is YouTube’s 22nd most viewed partner channel, according to the company’s Web site. It trails Showtime, which has 241 million views, but is ahead of Google Inc., YouTube’s parent company, which has 193 million views.

Unlike the corporate giants, Orlova operates out of her Los Angeles apartment. She has been writing scripts, filming episodes on her bed and editing the footage by herself. Recently she has been looking for studio space as her work load expands.

In the past year, she began creating additional episodes plugging products ranging from soft drinks to mushroom burgers. She did an ad for Bigwords.com, a Web site selling used textbooks, by tracing the word “robot,” which happens to be the company’s mascot, to the 1920 play “R.U.R.” by Czech writer Karel Capek.

When Go Daddy Group Inc., the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company that sells domain names, made Orlova one of its ambassadors, also known as “Go Daddy Girls,” she focused her episode on the origins of “domain.”

“If you have original content, you can monetize it,” said Orlova, who hopes to earn $1 million next year.

(Katya Kazakina is a reporter for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter of this story: Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 25, 2009 00:01 EDT