Read the thread about the spiral arm of the Milky Way above this post, there is a lot of good information in there. I didn't read any of the responses to this so some of this may have been covered, but more or less:
•Bump your ISO WAY UP - ISO1600 at least but I'd go ISO3200
•Set your lens wide open or very close
•30 Seconds is too long for a 24mm lens. In order to figure out the maximum exposure time before the stars turn into a pill shape you divide 600 by the focal length (although some say 500/FL to be safe) and that's the max exposure time. So 600/24 = 25, so you were about 5 seconds over on this one. Now 600/14 is 42.85, so if you picked up a Samyang 14mm you could go over 40 seconds no problem.
•Turn off all noise reduction/highlight tone priority
•Cover your viewfinder with tape
•Turn on silent shooting and mirror lockup
•Use a remote trigger or use the 2 second delay
And the absolute most critical part:
Get as far away from light pollution as possible, this makes absolutely all the difference in the world. Look at this map
http://www.blue-marble.de/nightlights/2010 and find a really dark spot. Also it looks like you went out when it was a bit cloudy, you want to go when visibility is high.
As for getting the Milky Way, it has to be the right part of the year and it depends on what part of the world you are in. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere the brightest part of the Milky Way is visible during the summer months, and that part is near the constellation Saggita.
Download this app called Stellarium
http://www.stellarium.org, which will allow you to put yourself at any spot on the Earth on any given day at any given time and if you hit play it will show you what will move through the sky over any period of time. IMPORTANT: when you launch the app, make sure you turn the atmosphere off (gives you a more clear view) and turn "constellation labels" on and look for Saggitarius. That's where you want to point. There are other parts of the Spiral arms visible here and there, but that is the part that you see in the Milky Way pics that "wow" you the most.
Good luck!