Could Pretty Links Get you a Amazon Affiliate Ban?

Yes, it better to use raw links when using amazon.

If I remember correctly people started to complain about getting amazon accounts banned for pretty links about year or so ago.

I think the mixed opinions come from fact that amazon can´t simply check every affiliate website. I know that some affiliates have been in trouble for using outdated amazon product prices in website comparison tables or in reviews. I can´t keep up with each price update, but still have price at the end of each review. No problems so far.
 
Yes, I've seen it happen first hand.

Everyone should read through Amazon's terms. The last thing you want is to start banking, only to not get paid out because of some little violation that wouldn't even have a big impact on your conversions.
 
The right answer is in your article:

"3. Cloaking your affiliate links with software such as pretty link is ok with Amazon, as long as you don’t do anything malicious, such as framing the Amazon site or automatically tagging sessions with your Associates ID (also known as cookie stuffing)."

And their TOS does not prohibit cloaking or adding a click tracker like Pretty Links to measure your metrics. UNLESS your program is adding in iframes or dropping cookies, which is where people get into trouble endlessly.
 
Comes down to how to interpret
"For example, you must include your Associates ID or “tag” (appearing as XXXXX-20, or such other format as we may designate) as a parameter in the URL of each link you place on your site to the Amazon Site."

Along with...
"In addition, you must not use a link shortening service in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site."

So there's more to it than simply not using iframes, depending on how you choose to interpret those words and how Amazon decides to interpret them.

So tread carefully, if you're going to cloak your links then make it absolutely obvious that they're sending the person to Amazon and you should be okay, with your associates ID still visible in the link. So unless your Pretty Link is yoursite.com/go/beats-by-dre-XXXXXX-20 with an anchor text that mentions it links to Amazon it seems to me that someone could intrepreit it as a violation.

A couple more things to keep in mind...
" Under no circumstances may you associate any sub-tag with a specific end user of your site (e.g., you may not dynamically assign sub-tags to users as they arrive on your site for purposes of monitoring such users’ behavior)."

"In addition, if you choose to display prices for any Product on your site in any “comparison” format (including through the use of any price-comparison tool or engine) together with prices for the same or similar products offered through any web site or other means other than the Amazon Site, you must display both the lowest “new” price and, if we provide it to you, the lowest “used” price at which the Product is available on the Amazon Site. You may not otherwise include price information on your site."

Finally, you can't list the price unless it updates automatically via the Amazon API or you're using their widgets.
"Because prices for and availability of Products that you have listed on your site may change, your site may only show prices and availability if: (a) we serve the link in which that price and availability data are displayed; or (b) you obtain Product pricing and availability data via the Product Advertising API and you comply with the requirements set forth in the License Agreement that are applicable to that data."

 
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Amazon is very quick at banning, usually with zero warning. Make sure you know what you are doing when dealing with banazon
 
Newsletters can be a source of traffic and commissions from Amazon when they contain only links to the Amazon reviews blog posts. This should be the email marketing strategy when we talk for revenue from Amazon.
 
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I've spoken to a rep about this in the past and was told to refrain from doing so. What I do now is using the Amazon URL shortner and just fire Google Analytics events so I can monitor the clicks. That way you get the data you want, and you're safe with their terms of service.
 
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