Wow sorry you were misled. I'm pretty sure you weren't asking about currency rate conversions.
Online conversions = number of visitors / number of them who take the action you want.
For instance, let's say you're offering a an ebook on "how to date women" and it sells for $10.
Of the 100 visitors who visit you site 2 actually purchase your ebook. Your conversion rate for the ebook sales is 100/2 or 2% (which is a typical conversion rate as of 2008).
The reason you want to know your conversion rate is because if you increase it you can get the more profit from the same 100 visitors, this gives you extra money to get more visitors.
Hope this helps.