Interestingly enough, you don’t need to have a degree in journalism or English to be a successful freelance writer. You don’t even need to have much experience in writing. What you need is the ability to write well. Other skills or experience you should have are:

Good grammar Ability to proofread and edit your work Research skills Knowledge of writing styles, such as the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) Ability to market yourself as a writer For online essays, you must: Understanding SEO Have experience in networking and marketing using social media Understand the difference between print content writing and web content writing Comfortable using an online publishing platform like WordPress