Monitoring soil organic matter(SOM) content can provide scientific basis for soil fertility diagnosis and rational utilization of soil resources. Through continuum removal process on reflectance curves of 191 soil samples from southern Xinjiang, SOM continuum removal spectral indexes were constructed and four absorption parameters were identified in accordance with 850–1380, 1380–1550, 1730–2150 and 2150–2380 nm, respectively. Subsequently, a number of quantitative inversion models were established to illustrate SOM contents. The results showed that absorption characteristics of SOM were amplified owing to the continuum removal reflectance, and SOM content was positively correlated with continuum removal values and negatively correlated with absorption area in 850–1380 nm, however, inverse correlations were observed in 1730– 2150 nm. Additionally, the correlation between SOM content and values of continuum removal reflectance was better than that between SOM content and reflectance, meanwhile, the correlation between SOM content and first derivative of continuum removal reflectance was not significantly different from that between SOM content and first derivative of reflectance. As a whole, there were no significant differences in predictive accuracies when using exponential models based on SOM spectral indexes, and these models could estimate roughly SOM content. The model generated by NMAD_850~1380nm (normalization maximum absorption depth area in 850–1380 nm) could predict SOM content better among all models based on absorption characteristic parameters. All of the PLSR models, which were established based on reflectances(R), continuum removal(CR), first derivative of reflectance (R′) or first derivative of continuum removal reflectance (CR′) values, respectively, could predict SOM content with all RPD values higher than 2.00, while the CR′ model was the best with highest R² (0.91) and RPD (2.58) but lowest RMSE (5.62).