As a general rule, most people, spammers included, want to avoid looking like spammers. Despite that, a lot of innocent people end up looking like spammers because they do spammy things.

Here are 3 things to do if you want to avoid looking like a spammer:

1. Avoid keyword stuffing. What does that mean? It means avoid putting too many of your keywords in your posts. You should also avoid having your key words close together. So, pay attention to the density of your target words to the rest of your text, shoot for 2-3% density and you should be OK.

   Here’s an example of keyword stuffing:
   

   Did you notice how many times the writer of that passage stuffs uses the words “marketing,” “online,” and “internet”?

2. Avoid talking and not saying anything. This is, I believe, an acquired skill. Most people, when they speak, they have a point to make. When talking to prospective clients or when blogging etc. make sure that you say something. Anything other than “sign up to get the 20 secrets to the best internet marketing widget known to man that they don’t want you to have.” Teasing someone in the text to entice your reader to take a next step is OK, but you have got to give me a real reason to take that next step.

   By the way, only scammers and spammers have “secrets” that “they” don’t want you to have.

3. Avoid being too religious. Let me explain, a lot of scammers and spammers will hide behind the guise of being pious. They believe that by acting and pretending to be pious that you will trust and believe them. Unless you know the person personally, be on guard any time any one tells you that they wanted to talk to you while they are “on their way to Bible study.” I feel strongly that someone’s piousness, or appearance thereof, should not be the reason that you do business with them.

Bonus: Pay attention to the comments on your blog or website. If you have a site where people can comment, such as a blog, or a squidoo lens or something along those lines, do yourself a favor and pay attention to what people are saying in the comments.

Here’s an example from the same site where I took the sample stuffing text from:

Looks like that site owner should’ve activated Akismet and enabled comment moderation.