I got a few backlinks (500) from (3-5)PR sites pointing to my site, do youn reckon I need to use a link pinging/crawling tool? I can't see any of these links on google webmaster tools, it's been a week since I purchased those backlinks.
Pinging the URL that you have backlinks on can often make Google crawl that page faster, meaning you will get indexed faster. I would recommend doing so. Bare in mind that just because you can't see the backlinks in Google webmaster tools, doesn't mean they aren't benefiting your website.
My recommendation to ping your links would be to use Ping-o-matic! You can visit the website here: http://pingomatic.com
Pinging your own site? Brave individual...Google is growing increasingly aware of pinging to get traffic.
Depends on the quality of the links. Decent links will show up pretty fast, junk will take a while (or use a tool to speed it up like bulkping).
I never ping anything ... I believe it's better to add some backlinks to sites with backlinks (backlinks are the best way to get the sites indexed).
I haven't used any pinging tools before but now I have checked some pining tools. Among them Bulkping.com is petty good.