Alkoxyindoles are very important building blocks and have been found in some drugs and biologically active compounds. The reported methods to 5- or 6-alkoxyindoles mainly involved in the reaction of expensive 5- or 6-hydroxyindole with alkyl alcohols or alkyl halides. Therefore, we have developed a convenient way to prepare 5 or 6-alkoxyindoles starting from inexpensive starting materials. By using this method, the targeted 5- or 6-alkoxyindoles 4 were obtained in total 20% ~ 60% yields from 3-methyl-4-nitro-phenol or 4-methyl-3-nitro-phenol 1, respectively,via a 3-step synthetic sequence.