Several years ago, Bankrate Inc. (NASDAQ: RATE) was benefiting nicely from the mortgage boom. But, investors were skeptical -- could this last?

Well, Bankrate was smart to diversity its offerings, such as into credit cards and insurance. And it's working.

In Bankrate's Q3 report, revenues spiked 77% to $44 million (a record for the company). Net income was $6 million or $0.32 per share. Moreover, adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) came to $16 million, a 39% increase over the past year.

With the volatility in the financial markets, Bankrate got a nice boost from users looking for guidance. In fact, Q3 page views increased 11% to 160.1 million. No doubt, Bankrate certainly understands how to monetize such traffic.

It seems that I get about five credit card offers per day in my mail (and I can see why many Americans are broke). Actually, a study from Synovate's Mail Monitor shows that there were 6 billion such offers in 2005, up from 2.7 billion in 1995. Yet, the response rate has gone from 1.4% to 0.3%. In other words, credit card issuers are looking for new channels. And, of course, the internet is the next frontier.

One of the key players in the space is CreditCards.com, which has filed to go public. Basically, with the site, consumers can research, compare, and identify various credit card offers. For each approved application, CreditCards.com receives a fee.

From 2004 to 2006, its revenues surged from $11.5 million to $42.9 million. During this time, adjusted EBITDA went from $5.8 million to $21.4 million.

The largest source of traffic comes from the major search properties, such as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). There is also substantial competition, such as credit card issuers -- Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) -- as well as other websites: CardOffers.com, CardRatings.com, CreditCardGuide.com, and so on.

The lead underwriters on the IPO include Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) and Citigroup.

You can find the prospectus on the SEC website. Also, if you want to check out more IPOs, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.