Do you follow their rules exactly? What are the consequences for not following the no text link rule? Once an affiliate manager asked for a screen shot to be sure the rules were being followed, and the entire campaign was pulled because many people were violating the rule.
I frankly don't understand the importance of using no text links. Why do they care so much that a banner be used?
I just joined cpaempire. Many of the campaigns give you the URL to embed in your website, I would think text would be fine in that case unless they stated otherwise. Ask your affiliate manager.